Last Seen in Magdalen
by Templarlady
Summary: Bill and Alex take a weekend break in Oxford and are involved in a murder mystery
1. Chapter 1

The Character of Bill Compton belongs to Charlaine Harris and Alan Ball. All other characters originate in my warped imagination.

**Last Seen at Magdalen**

Bill and I had decided that we deserved a break after all the recent upheaval. The three of us would go away somewhere for the weekend.

"Where would you like to go?" he asked.

"Oh… I don't know. I'd just like to get away somewhere."

"How about London?" suggested Azaria brightly.

"Oh, you just want to go to London so you can arrange to see Dan!" I said with a laugh.

Bill's ears pricked up at this. "Dan? Who's Dan?" he asked suspiciously. "Do I know this Dan?"

"You met him in London when we went up for the hearing. You remember…..Chris's brother." I explained.

"Chris?" asked Bill.

"Oh do keep up Bill! Claudia's Chris!"

"Oh yes, He came out to dinner with us didn't he. I remember now. So why would you want to arrange to meet him?" He raised an eyebrow and turned to Azaria with a quizzical expression. She glanced over at me crossly.

"Oh come on!" I said "He had to know sooner or later!" I said with a smile. "He asked her for her number at the restaurant and he's been calling her and chatting on Skype."

Bill looked highly indignant at this information. "Why didn't I know about this?" he asked.

"Well, you never happened to be around…." said Azaria hesitantly.

"Now don't be unreasonable Bill!" I said. "She's not set foot outside the house! and besides, he seemed a nice enough guy. I liked him!"

Bill sighed "Yes I suppose he is. But I was thinking of somewhere quieter than London personally."

I had an idea. "Bill…." I said thoughtfully. "Do you still own The Mill House?"

"What's The Mill House?" asked Azaria curiously.

"Well, actually yes" said Bill, turning to Azaria. "It's a property I own just outside Oxford. Claudia and I lived there for a while in the 80's. As a matter of fact I had a call from the agents only last week to say that the current tenants had moved out and they were putting it on the market again. Why?" he smiled at me "do you fancy a weekend retreat in the country?"

"Oh yes! That would be lovely, and maybe Claudia might like to visit again….." I suggested innocently, "with Chris…..and maybe Dan?"

"Why you sneaky…...!" Before I could move Bill had reached over and pulled me onto his lap laughing and tickling me.

"Hey! Cut that out" I giggled.

"I think it's a great idea." Azaria was grinning at me enthusiastically. "Oh can we, please Bill?" she pleaded. She gazed hopefully at him with those enormous brown eyes and I knew he was lost!

"Oh all right….I'll talk to the agent" he said.

"Yes!" Azaria gave me a huge smile and raced off upstairs, presumably to try and decide which of her numerous new outfits would be suitable for a weekend in the country…with Dan.

"Hmm…..do you think this is a good idea" asked Bill.

"Yes, of course it is!" I said. "Look Bill, she's not a child. She might behave a little like one when she's around you because she thinks of you as her father. She loves you as a father. But she really isn't, believe me she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself." I reached up and took his face between my hands. "I know you love her and want to take care of her, but you must remember that she's actually older than you are, and probably considerably stronger too!" I kissed him gently. "She'll be fine, you have to let her live her own life…so to speak."

Bill hugged me to him and kissed me. "I know. She's learning so fast and growing in confidence every day. It's selfish of me" he whispered "but I don't want to let her go."

"I don't think she's going to want to leave you Bill. Not for a long time anyway."

It was not until about about a fortnight later that we headed out to Oxford. Bill had arranged for the agents to get the house cleaned and redecorated for use as a weekend retreat and I was really excited about it. I'd never had a holiday home before!

We left at dusk and got to the Mill House in good time. The road made a right angled turn over the river and on the other side of the bridge sat the house. The old mill was next to it, beside the bridge, with the mill race where the old millwheel would have been beside it. The house itself was a large, three storey stone building with sizeable chimney stacks on either side suggesting that each room would have its own fireplace. Bill pulled the car into the little yard at the side of the property and handed me the keys as he went to get the luggage. Azaria and I ran excitedly round to the front door and, after a couple of attempts, I opened it.

The front door opened into a large stone flagged hallway open to the right of the door, with a huge inglenook fireplace on the far right hand wall. To the left was a door leading into an equally large, stone flagged kitchen. Further down the hall were two doors leading to two more rooms at the rear and furthest away, at the far end of the hall, was a glass panelled door leading out to the garden. Azaria and I looked into all the rooms and peered out into the garden for a moment, then made for the great stone staircase beside the fireplace leading up to the first floor. On the first floor were two large double bedrooms, one with an en-suite bathroom, a single bedroom and a large bathroom with a modern glass shower cubicle and a large semi-circular bath against one wall. The walls of the first floor hallway were covered with wood panelling and at the far end of the hallway was another wooden door.

"I wonder where this goes?" said Azaria, turning the handle curiously. The door opened on a small dark stairway, seemingly set against the rear wall of the house.

"Up to the next floor?" I said.

We climbed carefully up the dark stairway and came out on the third floor. I felt around on the wall by the top of the stairs and found a light switch. However, it merely activated a single, weak light bulb in the centre of the dark corridor. This had evidently not been used for years as the four small rooms were all empty and covered with a thick layer of dust.

"I'd guess this must have been the servants' quarters originally." I said, peering into a dark room. "Doesn't look as if it's been used for years though." I turned to where Azaria had been standing and she was gone. "Azaria?" I called. "Where are you?" I looked around the dark hallway, faint beams of moonlight were struggling to get in through the cobwebbed windows.

"Azaria!"

"In here!" she called. "Come and see this!"

Her voice was coming from one of the rear rooms and I looked in to see her kneeling on a low, wide window ledge looking out. "Take a look at this!" she said.

I went over and looked out of the window. We were looking down over the rear of the property, below us was a neat garden with a large lawn and big beds of flowers, beyond that was a small orchard and beyond that was the silver ribbon of the river with fields on the far side. The river curved around the side of the house to the millpond, which we could see to one side, the dark silent bulk of the old mill next to it. Between the mill and the house was a small yard where we could see Bill's car and some outbuildings which I assumed was an old stable block. We stood for a moment watching the moonlight turning the surface of the mill pond into glittering shards of reflected light.

"It's so beautiful" said Azaria softly. "My homeland was green with broad rivers and thick jungle. When I first woke and Ulrich took me outside The Authority's headquarters I thought that Italy was very pretty but too dry for me!" She turned and smiled at me. "I think I'm going to like this place!"

We made our way back downstairs laughing together to find Bill in the great hall surrounded by luggage.

"Been exploring ladies?" he asked.

"We've been all the way up to the third floor" I said. "We think we're going to like it here, don't we?" I put my arm around Azaria and gave her a hug.

"But you haven't seen the latest addition!" said Bill. He opened the kitchen door and waved us through.

"Why on earth would you want to add on to the kitchen?" I asked, puzzled. "It's not as if you ever use it!"

In answer Bill pointed to another wooden door which opened onto a flight of steps going down. "Not the kitchen" he answered "the wine cellar!" At the bottom of the steps was a large steel security door with a keypad like the one back home. I smiled to myself. "Home" I thought, "I thought of it as home, not "Bill's house" but "home".

Bill meanwhile, tapped in the code and opened the door. Beyond it was a short corridor with two doors, one on either side of the corridor. "All this was originally the wine cellar" he explained. "I had a room built down here for me when I first bought the place and I've now had it extended into two light tight suites, one for us and one for you." He opened one of the doors and gestured to Azaria to go in. There was a sizeable bedroom with an adjoining bathroom.

"Oh Bill! My own little suite!" Azaria jumped up, flung her arms around Bill's neck and kissed him. He grinned down at her. "Better go and get those bags and start unpacking" he said.

I opened the door to the other suite as Azaria zipped back upstairs to get her bags. This suite was bigger and looked extremely comfortable. A thought struck me and I turned to Bill who had followed me in.

"What on earth did the tenants think about this?" I asked. "A self-contained suite in the cellar with a steel security door.

"I have no idea" he laughed "and I don't really care. I imagine they might well have suspected that the house belonged to a vampire, but they never said anything and they paid the rent on time, so who knows. According to the agents their teenage son had this room and lived down here almost permanently, slept all day and was on the internet all night. When they moved out he practically had to have his laptop and iphone surgically removed."

I giggled. "Don't be so silly!"

"It's true, I promise you!" Bill laughed "The kid wasn't actually a vampire. He just behaved like one!"

"That's teenagers for you!" I said.

We unpacked and settled in and then Bill called Claudia and invited them to join us for a meal the following night. She was delighted to hear from him and we arranged to meet in a restaurant she knew in Oxford. Bill had the phone on speaker and Azaria was practically bouncing up and down, obviously wanting to ask if Dan would be accompanying them when Claudia asked casually.

"Is Azaria with you?"

"Yes. She's here" said Bill.

"Oh good!" said Claudia "because Dan's here, you remember Dan? Chris's brother? And he's dying to come with us! He's been itching to meet her again since London." There was a groan in the background and some muttering.

"Oh yes you have!" came Chris's voice, slightly muffled "you haven't talked about anything else!"

Azaria gave an excited little squeak and then clapped her hand over her mouth, obviously not wanting Dan to hear. Bill and I smiled.

"So that's settled then?" he asked "tomorrow night at the Hobnails Inn."

"We'll look forward to it" said Claudia with a laugh "all of us!"

The heating in the Mill House, although modern, was not enormously effective due to the stone walls and floors so there was a large supply of logs beside the huge inglenook fireplace and a fire was laid in the hearth which I lit carefully. Soon I had a good fire going and I curled up on one of the sofas and relaxed. Bill and Azaria had gone downstairs, Bill to finish unpacking and Azaria, doubtless to try and decide what to wear tomorrow night!

As I sat beside the fire I began to feel a little drowsy and I nodded off for a moment. When I woke the room felt colder and I assumed, at first, that I had been asleep for a while and had let the fire die down. However the clock showed only a few minutes had passed and the fire looked just the same. Was I sitting in a draught? I turned around and saw a woman standing in the hall. She looked slightly different but I recognised her nevertheless. It was Queen Mab. She was wearing a pair of loose trousers and a long coat in the same cool mixture of blues, greens and purples, and her long silver hair was coiled up in a knot on top of her head, but the pale ethereal beauty was the same and the eyes were unmistakeable. Those pale, cat slit orbs watched me as I got up from the sofa.

"Good evening your majesty" I said, having been brought up to believe that politeness costs nothing.

Just then the kitchen door flew open and Bill rushed out, having felt my sudden fright through the bond. I held up my hand to him. "It's okay Bill!" I said, hoping that it was.

"Good evening" she said, equally politely. "I have a favour to ask of you. I should like to see my granddaughter."

I looked at Bill. "Um….certainly" he said "I'll just…call her." He disappeared back into the kitchen leaving Mab and I staring at each other.

"Would you care to sit down?" I asked, gesturing at the opposite sofa.

She smiled. "Why thank you child!" she said and suddenly she was sitting on the sofa. But she didn't appear to have moved between the two points! Oh boy, this was even weirder than usual! I sat down and smiled nervously at her just as Bill and Azaria emerged from the kitchen. She gave Azaria what was undoubtedly the warmest smile I had ever seen from her and held out her hands to her. Azaria went to her, a little hesitantly and took her hands.

"Grandmother?" she asked, a little doubtfully.

"Yes, indeed!" she said. "I never thought to see you again in this world child." She patted the sofa beside her. Azaria looked at Bill for a moment, he nodded encouragingly and she sat down beside Mab. "You trust him to care for you?" she asked, evidently she hadn't missed the little glance at Bill.

"Yes, absolutely!" said Azaria, "if it were not for him and Alex I would still be locked away in that vault."

"I should like to hear about that, if you would not mind telling me the story?" asked Mab.

Bill sat down beside me, putting his arm around me protectively, and so I sat, curled up on a sofa, before a log fire in the arms of a vampire and explained to a Faery Queen how we had crossed Europe in our quest to find a lost Inca Princess. ( The Spanish Manuscript )

I wondered if it was possible for my life to get any more complicated.

I lay in bed in the new suite downstairs in the old wine cellar with Alex in my arms and thought about the moment I had felt her fright and burst out of the kitchen to see Queen Mab in the hallway.

We had talked for several hours about our journey across Europe in search of Azaria and Mab had listened intently to the story, seeming fascinated by our efforts to decipher the clues in Brother Diego's manuscript. When we had finished she thanked us for our courage and determination, kissed Azaria on the forehead, wished us a good evening and then simply vanished. We had all sat stunned for a moment. Then we seemed to come to a unanimous decision that we had had enough excitement for one night.

Alex lay curled up in my arms. "Do you think she's likely to be dropping in on a regular basis?" she asked.

"I have absolutely no idea!" I answered. "But I rather hope not. Although she has always been pleasant to us so far, I have to admit that I find her a little intimidating!" I turned to look at Alex, "don't you think so?"

"Yes, she certainly is!" she said. She shifted up onto her elbow and leaned over me, kissing me lightly, her long hair brushing over my bare shoulders. I slid an arm around her and pulled her down onto my chest, kissing her more deeply and lifting her up and across me until her warm, soft body was lying full length on top of me.

I stretched out on my back, luxuriating in the sensation of her warm flesh on mine, feeling her heart beating against my chest. I put my hands up behind my head and felt the iron trellis of the bedstead behind me.

"Now why don't you hold onto that and let me take care of you?" she asked softly.

I reached back and took hold of the bars. "Whatever you say..."

"Hmmm...can I trust you to keep still?" she asked.

"Well, probably not!" I admitted ruefully "Expecting me to be able to keep my hands off you is a little optimistic, don't you think?"

She stared down at me for a moment. "I've got an idea!" she said and leaned down over the side of the bed, rummaging in one of the drawers underneath the mattress for something. I shifted slightly and the quilt slid back revealing Alex's slim, nude body bent over the edge of the bed, her neat round buttocks in the air. I gritted my teeth for a moment with the effort and then gave in, leaning over to plant a kiss on her bottom. She gave a squeak and nearly slid off the bed, so naturally I had to grab her to stop her from falling. Although I suppose pulling her back up onto the bed and slipping both hands up to caress her breasts probably wasn't absolutely necessary! But it was fun.

"You see what I mean" she laughed. "I just can't trust you to keep your hands to yourself can I?"

I gazed up at her innocently. "Well...no!" I admitted. "But why on earth would I want to? When I've got all this to explore?"

"Well I'll soon fix that!" she whispered, reaching down to the floor and pulling up a handful of silk scarves.

"I mean it" she warned "I want you completely helpless!"

I laughed, "Okay go ahead then" I said.

Alex reached for my wrists and I watched as she tied a scarf around them, fastening it to the bars of the iron bedstead, pulling my arms up above my head. I felt a faint tingle in my arms but I ignored it, fascinated and I must admit, aroused by Alex's actions.

I grinned up at her. "Right, you've got me completely helpless. What now?"

She reached behind her for another scarf and swung her leg over my hips, reaching forward to slip the scarf around my head, covering my eyes.

As I stretched my body out in anticipation she reached down and took hold of my arms. "Now I've got you at my mercy!" she whispered.

Suddenly, without warning, I had a flash of memory. Of lying on a bed next to a dying girl, her blood still pumping from the terrible wounds my fangs had made in her throat. The sheets were covered in pools of her blood and her dead husband sat in a chair seeming to watch us, his neck broken by a vicious twist of Lorena's hands. She was sitting astride me her hands on my arms holding me down, both our bodies slippery with the girl's blood. I tried to open my eyes and sit up but, to my horror, I could neither see, nor move.

The memory of Lorena's strength holding me grew stronger as I realised that, for some reason, I really was helpless. My muscles seemed to have turned to water.

"No! no please! I murmured, horrified, my mind seeming to slip back uncontrollably to that night in Chicago in 1926. A night that I had tried so hard to wipe from my memory.

"No!" I cried out and tried to pull my hands away from the bedstead. I managed to pull the scarf aside and a sudden streak of white hot agony ran across my wrist.

"No! Bill, keep still!" I felt Alex reach up and untie the scarf, pulling it away from my wrists and the pain subsided. I lay back as she pulled the second scarf from my eyes.

"Oh no, Bill I'm so sorry!" her tears fell on my face as she leaned forwards to examine my wrist. I brought my arm down to look at it and saw the faint red line of a burn, already almost healed.

"What on earth was that?" I asked.

"Oh Bill, darling, I'm so sorry!" she wept.

She held out her hand and I saw a thin silver chain which she had wrapped up carefully in the silk scarf but which my struggles had allowed to slip out onto my skin.

"I never imagined for a moment that you'd struggle like that, it was only meant to be a bit of fun after all! I'm so sorry."

I sat up and pulled her into my arms, her tears falling on my chest. "It's okay, look I'm fine now." I said, I held her in my arms, gently rubbing her back as though I were comforting a child and gradually I felt her panic begin to subside.

"Oh Bill, I'm sorry" she whispered "I had no idea you'd react like that. Did I hurt you? I didn't think I could!"

"No, no precious, it was nothing to do with you at all. It was just…" I paused, unwilling even to think about it. I pulled her body closer and buried my face in her neck. "It just made me remember something, something I'd hoped that I'd forgotten, something I could never bear to tell you about. Please don't ask me to explain!"

"I should have told you about the silver" she said. "I just thought it would weaken you a little. You're so ridiculously strong and I thought it would be okay as it was wrapped up in the scarf, I never meant it to touch your skin…"

"And it wouldn't have done if I hadn't stupidly tried to pull away! It was my own fault."

"But you didn't know! If I'd told you…"

"I doubt if it would have made any difference." I said softly, stroking her hair "I wasn't thinking straight anyway."

"Are you sure you're okay?" She asked. "Do you need my blood?"

I held her close to me and kissed her. "You know I'm not going to refuse an offer like that." I smiled "but it was just a tiny burn, it's not because I need it, you didn't hurt me that badly I promise you. It's because I want it, I want you..." I rolled over on the bed until we were entwined in each other's arms and began to kiss the soft, delicate skin of her throat. I thought of her trying to tie me down and suddenly the powerful arousal I had felt came rushing back, hardening my manhood, making my skin tingle wherever she touched me.

She felt my stiffness nudging at her stomach and I heard her heartbeat speed up, felt the sudden rush of her own arousal flood into me through the blood bond. I slipped my hand behind her head and steadied her as I bit down into her neck and as I did so I felt her body convulse in my arms. I felt her ease her leg under my hips, trying to pull me on top of her.

"Please Bill...now please!" she moaned softly into my ear.

I pushed myself up on my knees and pulled her body beneath me, sinking back down onto her, my hard shaft sliding easily between her spread legs. I could feel that she was hot and wet and so ready for me. She pushed her hips up towards me and I pushed myself deep inside her, our bodies locking together like two pieces of a puzzle. A puzzle where one piece means nothing, is incomplete without the other. She gave a soft moan and wrapped her legs around my hips as I took a mouthful of her sweet blood. She lay back on the bed pulling up her knees as I pushed forwards. I ran my hand down her leg and grasped her ankle, pulling back from her throat and kneeling almost upright I pulled her leg up onto my shoulder and she did the same with her other leg, spreading her thighs wider as I drove myself into her.

I pulled out and leaned down over her, running my hand down her smooth leg Following my hand with my tongue until I reached the little hollow at her groin then sinking my fangs into her thigh and drinking deeply. She twitched and writhed beneath me moaning incoherently as I withdrew my fangs and pushed myself back inside her. I ran my hand back up her leg to her ankle, resting on my shoulder, and turned my head, biting her again, but this time only taking a mouthful before releasing her. She slipped her legs back down onto the bed and I rolled over, pulling her up on top of me, my manhood still buried deep within her. She lay on my chest, exhausted, and kissed the hollow of my throat. I put my head back, encouraging her and she licked at the skin of my throat and then bit down hard. My whole body seemed to go into delicious convulsions as I felt her suck at the ragged little wound she had made, drinking down my blood hungrily until I finally climaxed inside her, taking her with me.

I woke mid-afternoon to find myself wrapped firmly in Bill's arms. For a moment I considered snuggling back down and going back to sleep, but then I remembered that I needed to walk down to the village to get some supplies. Bill's agents had brought in some basics and I had to say that they were pretty comprehensive, but there were some things that I wanted to get for myself. I wriggled out of Bill's grip, not without some difficulty as, when he felt me move, he shifted in his sleep and tightened his hold on me. I lay still for a moment wondering if he was having a bad dream, but he seemed peaceful enough.

I tried out the new shower, which was very impressive, dressed and set off for the village. I left a note for Bill telling him I would call him later just in case I decided to take the bus into Oxford.

The village was a five minute walk away and the small village store was a little disappointing. Fine for basic food supplies but nothing very exciting and by this time I was ready to explore a little. The woman in the store told me that there was a bus into Oxford every 10 minutes or so at this time of day and so I bought a copy of the local paper and went outside just in time to see the bus pull up. I jumped on and bought a ticket, settling down in a seat at the back.

The journey into Oxford took about 10 minutes or so and was uneventful. I glanced at the front page of the local paper and then spread it out in front of me, shocked. There was a picture of a University quadrangle in the snow, probably a library photograph picked to help illustrate the story and inset into it were pictures of three young girls. The headline read "Last Seen at Magdalen".

Reading the story I discovered that the three girls were students at Magdalen College and had all gone missing within days of each other. This had been considered worrying but not terribly important, students came and went all the time in Oxford, until the body of one of the girls had been found beside the river at Wolvercote the previous day. As if this were not bad enough the Police believed that she had been killed by a vampire!

This struck me as very odd. From what I knew of vampires, I was aware that most of them were well able to take care of themselves. Before the Revelation this had involved taking extreme care to ensure that their kills were not found, or at least, not identified. Surely no vampire would be so stupid, or so careless as to leave a body out in the open like that? I folded up the paper thoughtfully, meaning to show it to Bill later, just as the bus pulled up in Oxford.

I wandered around the centre of Oxford for most of the afternoon, looking into the Colleges, checking out the shops, generally enjoying myself until I came to the University bookshop. Wow! I was in heaven. I loved books and this place seemed to have everything. I began browsing and selecting books and completely lost track of time. Consequently, when I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket I was surprised to see it was Bill. I looked out to see that it was just dusk outside. I flipped the phone open.

"Hello gorgeous!" came Bill's voice, slightly husky from sleep. "Where are you?"

"I'm at Blackwells Bookshop on Broad Street." I said. "Where are you?"

"I'm lying in bed wondering why I'm all alone!" he said in a slightly offended tone of voice. "What is it with you and bookshops? Get back here at once!" his voice softened and deepened, "I need you!" he breathed into the phone.

I gave a little shiver. "Could be tricky" I said. "I've a nasty feeling that I may have just missed the last bus."

"Serves you right for hanging around in bookshops all day when you should be in bed with me" he said "you never know who could be lurking in a bookshop!"

I laughed, remembering how he had reached over my shoulder for a book the very first time we had met.

"Stay there" he laughed "I'll come and pick you up."

I sat on a bench outside and read the rest of the article about the murdered student and in about 10 minutes or so Bill's car pulled up, the strains of Handel drifting out of the window.

We were on our way back out of Oxford when the music suddenly cut out and was replaced by the sound of Bill's phone. He pressed a button on the steering wheel and said "Yes?"

"Bill, excellent. I hoped I'd catch you" said Charles's voice from the car's speakers. "I've had a call from an old friend of yours, she needs a favour."

"An old friend? Who?" asked Bill.

"Anastasia Lucaccio."

The powerful car twitched slightly as Bill gripped the steering wheel tighter.

"What does she want?" he asked suspiciously.

"She has a problem that we think you could help her with" said Charles.

"What kind of problem?" asked Bill, his voice now impatient as well as suspicious.

"She'll explain when you see her. I told her that, since you were in Oxford already you would meet her in 10 minutes or so" he said "in XS."

"What! I can't, I'm on my way back home!" said Bill, obviously annoyed.

Charles's voice came from the speakers, sounding equally annoyed. "Well turn around then! I promised her you'd be there."

"I've got Alex with me!" hissed Bill angrily, his hands tightening on the wheel.

There was a significant pause before Charles spoke again. "Oh…..well can't you take her with you?" he asked tentatively.

"To XS!" Bill sounded horrified at the thought.

"Or get her to wait for you…somewhere?" suggested Charles.

I sat silent, listening to them argue about me.

"Oh all right!" snapped Bill "I'll take her. But I'm not happy about this Charles!"

There was a click and the line shut off, the strains of Handel's Water Music filling the car again. I reached forward and switched the music off.

"What on earth is XS?" I asked.

Bill began to look distinctly uncomfortable, "Well….it's a club" he said.

"What sort of club?" I asked suspiciously.

Bill sighed and said reluctantly "a club for vampires."

"What….like Carmilla's?" I asked.

"No!" he said immediately "Nothing like Carmilla's." He looked across at me with that "this is something you don't want to know about" expression, but this time I wasn't having it.

"So, what is it like?" I asked firmly. "Look Bill, if I'm going to work with you don't you think I should know about these things?"

"Yes, you're probably right" he said resignedly. "I do have this tendency to try and protect you from the…..seedier….more dangerous, aspects of vampires, but I really shouldn't. You would be better off, safer, knowing this kind of information than not knowing and only finding out when it's too late." He appeared to brace himself, as if for an unpleasant task and tried to explain.

"Carmilla's is a club for humans" he said "humans who like to think they are being daring and edgy by going somewhere where they can be with vampires. Carmilla's was opened after the Great Revelation, when vampires became "cool" if you like. It's safe.

XS is a club for vampires, it was opened by Anastasia Lucaccio in about 1850 or so and has been there ever since then. It's very far from safe!"

"No-one knew about it?" I asked.

"Well no, how could they? You don't just walk into XS!" said Bill. "Entrance is by invitation only and humans, ordinary humans at least, very rarely go there even now. In the old days humans would be brought in, but wouldn't come out again." He put his hand on mine. "I'm sorry, I'd rather you didn't need to know this kind of thing but I can't shelter you completely, it wouldn't be safe."

"You said ordinary humans don't go there? What other kind are there?" I asked curiously.

"Oh, I just meant that the humans you find there are generally brought in by the vampires and by the management for….well. They're usually hardcore fangbangers and V addicts." He said, looking away from me. "I'm sure you can work out why they are there? The name's a good clue."

"XS?" I asked, puzzled "Oh! I see…you mean like "excess" right?"

"Right!"

"So who's Anastasia Lucaccio?" I asked.

Bill had pulled up beside a farm gateway and was concentrating on turning the car around so I waited patiently for an answer. We were heading back into Oxford when my patience ran out.

"Well? An old friend of yours? A vampire presumably?"

"Yes" answered Bill. "She was turned in Renaissance Italy, Florence, in about 1520 I met her when I was in England in the 1930's and again in the 80's.

"And she owns this club?" I asked.

"Yes, she has considerable power amongst the vampires in this area. Which makes me wonder what she thinks I could do for her."

"Well, I guess we'd better find out" I said somewhat warily.

Bill pulled up in a rather elegant street heading down towards the river, and sat for a moment thinking. He appeared to come to some sort of decision and turned to me. "You'd better come with me. I want to be able to keep an eye on you!" He was clearly reluctant to take me into the club, which I had to admit scared me a little.

"Why don't I just stay here in the car?" I asked.

"Outside XS? I don't think so." He said. "Really, you'd be a lot safer with me." He got out of the car and opened my door. I stood up and we began to walk away when suddenly he stopped.

"Did I see you drop that silver chain into your bag last night?" he asked.

"Yes, I think it's in here somewhere." I said, glancing down at my bag. "Why? You're not suggesting…."

"Put it on" he said.

"But Bill…."

"Please…do it for me?" he asked. "I'll be careful, don't worry!"

I reached into my bag and rummaged around until my fingers caught on the fine silver chain. I pulled it out and examined it for a moment. It had been a gift from my aunt when I was a child and had a tiny silver cross suspended from it, I hadn't worn it for years but the catch was still firm. I slipped it over my head and smiled at Bill.

"Don't forget!" I warned him.

He smiled back at me in a slightly worried fashion and we walked down a side street and up to a nondescript door at the end of the street. I looked up and noticed that there were no windows in the elegant Georgian building. The spaces where windows had been had clearly been bricked up many years ago. Bill walked up the three steps and I noticed an electronic keypad next to the door. He punched in a number and the door opened on a dark corridor. The walls were painted a deep blood red and a wave of heat heavy with the scent of legally questionable substances poured out towards us. There was a heavy red velvet curtain at the end of the corridor and Bill pulled it aside to reveal the interior of the club.

I looked out on what appeared to be a cross between a scene from a Frederico Fellini movie and a Roman orgy. Bill was right. This was certainly nothing like Carmilla's!

It appeared that the interior of the building had been gutted as we had come out on a mezzanine floor which ran all the way around the walls. Below us was a dance floor lit with flashing red and ultraviolet lights. Heavy dance music was playing so loudly that I could feel the bass beat pounding in my chest. The building must have had some impressive soundproofing as there was no hint, from the outside, of what was hidden within the walls of XS. The dance floor was packed with people and more lounged at tables scattered around and leaned on the small bar. To our right was a narrow stairway going down the dance floor and on the opposite side another headed up to another mezzanine floor higher up.

There were couches scattered around the floor we were standing on which had a narrow metal rail around the edge giving a clear view down over the dance floor and I noticed with a shock several couples who appeared to be...well, coupling on the couches. There seemed to be no particular dress code. The dancers were wearing outfits ranging from a full leather catsuit complete with hood, to one girl who appeared to be wearing nothing more than a few judiciously positioned strips of electrical tape. Two large metal cages hung from the ceiling high above on thick chains, each containing a scantily clad dancer.

Bill took my hand and entwined his fingers tightly with mine. "Keep close to me, don't touch anything, don't talk to anyone, don't drink anything" he muttered to me.

"Don't, in fact, do anything at all?" I asked.

"You've got it!" he said.

We walked towards the staircase passing two girls who had just come up the stairs. They were wearing nothing but lacy black underwear and stockings and holding hands, their fingers laced together. They both turned as we approached, their eyes fixed on Bill and I noticed one lick her lips as he passed. The stairway was narrow and Bill gently urged me down ahead of him, one hand on my waist and, as we reached the bottom turned me towards a couch and a group of chairs in a corner. The flickering red light made it difficult to see what was going on, which was probably just as well, but I could see someone reclining on the couch who looked up at Bill's approach.

He….at least I thought it was male…had long platinum blonde hair, startling black eyeliner and eyelashes longer than mine. He stood up and came towards us, oh yes, definitely male! He was wearing a baggy white silk shirt and the tightest pair of black leather trousers I had ever seen in my life, and I'd spent a lot of time in Carmilla's recently!

"Why William dahling!" he said "I've not seen you in ages! and you used to be such a regular!"

He did? I was sure I saw Bill wince at this pronouncement.

He reached over, put one hand behind Bill's head, pulled him forward and kissed him on the mouth. I tried hard to look unconcerned and broad-minded.

"Hello Maurice" said Bill calmly "how are you? I understand that Anastasia wants a word with me?"

Maurice's eyes had slid over to me. "Oooo….bringing in your own takeaway meals now? We'll have to charge you corkage old boy! Anastasia has an appointment with one of Montague's new sheriffs, if you'd like to wait I'm sure we can find you some suitable entertainment!"

"That won't be necessary" said Bill stiffly. "She's waiting for me."

Maurice raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. "You're a sheriff now? Oh my! Well, walk this way…." He winked at me, turned and sashayed off in the direction of one of the staircases swinging his hips in an exaggerated fashion.

"Don't you dare!" muttered Bill, without looking at me.

"Wouldn't dream of it dahling!" I whispered with a smile.

Bill sighed patiently and took my arm as we followed Maurice across the dance floor.

Bill held tightly to my arm as though he were afraid that I would be drawn away into the dancers. However, it was noticeable that most of the interest was in him. Several of the dancers both male and female, managed to "accidentally" brush up against him as we passed.

Maurice led us up the first staircase and across the first floor to the second. The flashing red lights revealing several startling tableaux to my shocked gaze.

A completely naked woman lay back across a couch, an equally naked vampire on top of her, his hips pumping in time to the beat of the music while another vampire crouched at the head of the couch drinking from her outflung arm. Whatever happened to "No Biting on the Premises" I wondered. That rule evidently didn't apply here! We passed a young girl sprawled in an armchair, her pupils huge and black while two slightly scuffed lines of white powder lay on the table before her together with a small pile of suspicious looking purple tablets.

Bill grasped my hand a little tighter as Maurice led us up the second staircase onto the higher floor and over to a door in the rear wall. Beside the door was an elaborate couch on which reclined a female vampire. She was small in stature, but there was something about her which told me that she should not be taken lightly. A dark haired male sat on the end of the couch, beside the woman's feet, on which I noticed the distinctive scarlet soles of a pair of Christian Louboutin stilettos. Two other male vampires sat at a small table beside the couch.

The dark haired man stood up at our approach. "Ah! You've brought us a meal Maurice, how sweet of you."

"Get your own, Morgan dahling!" said Maurice. "This one belongs to William."

The dark haired vampire, Morgan, laughed and reached out for my neck and, to my surprise, Bill simply watched him. I stood frozen to the spot and felt his cold hand wrap around my throat, but then he gave a cry of what might have been anger or pain or maybe a bit of both. He snatched his hand back, staring in disbelief at the long, thin, red burn across his palm.

He glared at Bill furiously. "You dare bring someone in here wearing silver!" he yelled.

"I considered it a reasonable precaution" said Bill mildly "just in case there was some idiot inside who considered that he was above the normal courtesies." His voice grew harder and colder as he turned to the woman reclining on the couch. "I'm shocked Ana dear. Such blatant poaching would have been severely punished in my day!"

Morgan turned to her. "You know him?" he asked, sounding surprised. He took a step towards Bill placing himself between the metal railing and the couch. There was a blur of movement and the woman flew up off the couch and hit him hard, throwing him back into the metal railing and tipping him over it. There was a wailing cry as he fell two stories down and landed with a crash on the dance floor below.

Maurice peered over the rail. "Let's hope he didn't land on anyone important!" he said, grinning at the woman, who I guessed must be Anastasia Lucaccio. She strode to the rail and looked down. Two men in dark suits were picking up the stunned Morgan.

"Throw that idiot out!" she called, her voice carrying the faint trace of an Italian accent. She walked calmly back to the couch, her six inch heels clicking on the wooden floor and stood staring at Bill for a moment. "Hello William" she said with a smile that lit up her face, "it's good to see you again."

Bill smiled back and reached for her, pulling her into his arms. "Hello Ana" he said, giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead. "It's been too long."

Anastasia excused herself politely to the two vampires sitting at her table and opened the door behind the couch, smiling at Bill, who took my hand and walked with me into a smartly appointed office. Anastasia followed us in and sat down in a large leather chair.

"It's been, what thirty years or so now?" she asked.

"About that" agreed Bill. "But somehow I don't think you called Charles simply because you missed me."

She sighed "No, not entirely" she gave him a little smile "although I certainly do."

Bill pulled out a chair for me and sat down beside me. "This is Alex" he said "she is mine."

Anastasia looked me over carefully. "Mmm...yes, I'd heard."

Bill raised a quizzical eyebrow and she laughed merrily. "Oh come on Will, after your appearance on Late Night Talk you surely couldn't have thought you were going to be able to keep your relationship a secret? Besides, we all heard about Azaria and what happened at Lazlo's trial!"

Bill sighed. "Yes, I suppose you would. So what did you want to see me about? Charles said you had a problem that you thought I could help you with?"

She sat upright, suddenly serious. "I heard that when you lived in Louisiana you were appointed Investigator for Area 5, is that right?" she asked.

"Well, yes I was" said Bill, clearly surprised. "Why?"

"You haven't heard?" she asked. "About the murdered student?"

"You mean the one from Magdalen College?" I asked.

"What do you know about it..."

"You've heard about this..."

Bill and Anastasia spoke at the same time both turning to me.

"Um...well, I read about it in the local paper, while I was waiting for you to pick me up." I explained.

"Perhaps someone would care to enlighten me?" asked Bill, "since I have no idea what you two are talking about?"

I glanced at Anastasia but said nothing.

"Three girls have gone missing from the University recently" she explained, turning back to Bill. All from Magdalen College. Yesterday the body of one of them, Sara Maitland, was found dumped by the river. She appeared to have been killed by a vampire."

"What, and just dumped in the open?" asked Bill. "That doesn't seem very likely!"

Anastasia gave a short laugh. "Tell that to the Police" she said. "They appear to be convinced, and they were giving me trouble before the body was found, now it's only going to get worse."

"Well..." said Bill hesitantly, "you know I'd like to help but..."

"Then you'll get your chance" she said glancing at her elegant gold wristwatch. "They'll be here to talk to me any minute now!"

"What?" Bill looked stunned. "But I..." as he spoke there was a knock at the door on the other side of the office from where we had entered. Bill put his head in his hands. "Do I get any choice in the matter?" he asked.

"Come on Will!" she said, "it's not just me, you'd be helping those two missing girls!"

"Four!" said a new voice.

I turned to see the door had opened and Maurice had come in accompanied by a Police Inspector and two constables, one of whom appeared to be a vampire.

"This is Inspector Felton" said Maurice. "Ms Lucaccio" he said indicating Anastasia.

"There are now four missing girls" said the Inspector "two more disappeared today."

"During the daytime?" asked Bill sharply.

The Inspector glanced over at Anastasia. "This is William Compton" she said "an old friend of mine. He was a Special Investigator for one of our kingdoms in the US."

"Evening sir" said the Inspector. "They were last seen at a party in Magdalen College last night, some friends were apparently with them until they got back to their lodgings."

"A vampire could hardly have abducted them during the daytime" Bill pointed out reasonably.

"They could have gone out again after their friends had left" said the constable.

"A bit unlikely though, don't you think?" asked Bill. "Anastasia tells me that you think the first girl was killed by a vampire?" he looked questioningly at the Inspector.

"Yes sir, we do. There were bite marks on the body and it was drained of blood." he explained.

"I heard that her throat was cut." said Anastasia.

"There was a cut, yes" said Felton. "But it wasn't that deep, and the body had been drained of blood, there wasn't a trace on the ground where she was found."

"But that might simply mean that her throat was cut somewhere else and she bled to death, then the body was dumped later where you found it" said Bill.

The Inspector looked sceptically at Bill. "Well, I suppose that's possible sir, but we tend to find that the most likely explanation is usually true. Most murderers are not half as clever as the ones you read about in mystery novels you know."

"So" said Anastasia in a rather more businesslike tone of voice. "Do you have any further ideas...other than just "a vampire" I mean?"

"Not yet Ms Lucaccio" he said "I just wanted to let you know the current situation. I trust that, if you hear anything which could be useful, you'll call me?" he handed her his card. "Immediately?" He turned to look around the office. "I'm aware that a lot of the local vampires come here, I hope that you'll co-operate with our efforts?" The Inspector walked over to the door through which Bill and I had entered from the club and turned the handle...it was locked.

"Of course Inspector" smiled Anastasia, getting up and escorting him gently to the outer door. "Would you just come with us for a moment Will?" she asked over her shoulder. Bill glanced at me then got up and followed her and the Inspector from the room.

The vampire constable stood by the door waiting for instructions but the human came over towards where I was sitting.

"So, are you with the vamp?" he asked.

"I'm with Mr Compton, yes" I said, putting a slight emphasis on the name.

"Funny" he said "you don't look like a fangbanger, you seem too sensible to get mixed up with vamps!"

I glanced over at the other constable who rolled his eyes at me. He was evidently well used to his colleague's attitude.

"I'm with Mr Compton" I repeated firmly "no-one else."

He gave a little laugh. "So he brings you to a vamp's knocking shop? What a charmer! You think you can trust a vamp?" he asked. "You can't trust it, even when it believes that it's sincere you still can't trust it."

"Well I do. I trust him!" I said quietly.

"Then you're a fool" he said harshly. "Sooner or later the hunger will take over, and when it does…then you're nothing but food!"

I sat silent and shocked at the angry intensity of his words and he turned away from me just as the door opened and Bill and Anastasia came back in. The two constables excused themselves and left, the vampire giving me an apologetic little smile as he went out.

"You see what I mean?" Anastasia was saying "If something isn't done soon he's going to find an excuse to raid this place!"

"Well, you know I'd like to help Ana but I really don't see what I can do!" said Bill, a little helplessly. "The Police are hardly going to want me to interfere. They obviously have vampire officers, did you know that one by the way?"

Anastasia gave a secretive little smile. "He's been in here a few times! Evidently he hasn't told his boss though!"

"How do you manage to keep going?" asked Bill curiously. "Surely the authorities don't know what happens in here?"

"Well, I'm partially official at least" she said with a laugh. "I have an alcohol licence! I don't think there is a licence for any of the other...entertainments, we offer!"

There probably isn't even a name for some of them!" said Bill with a snort.

"The promise of alcohol and vampires is what brings humans in here. But you're right we have to be a lot more careful."

"I should hope so" replied Bill. "If they had the slightest idea of what goes on in here you'd be arrested as their prime suspect."

"Exactly" she said. "Why do you think I need you William?"

Bill sighed and pulled a card out of his wallet. "Here's my number Ana, if you think of anything that might help, call me, okay. We have to be going, we have a dinner appointment."

Oh gosh yes! I'd forgotten that. Azaria would be going frantic, afraid that she'd miss her date! Bill took my hand and Anastasia waved at the other door. "Take the outside door" she said. Bill gave Anastasia a kiss on the cheek and opened the outer door, helping me down the flight of stone steps to into the alleyway at the back of the building. We walked around to where Bill had left the car and headed back to the Mill House.


	2. Chapter 2

Sure enough, when we got home Azaria was pacing up and down the hallway and pounced on us as soon as we set foot across the threshold.

"Where have you been? You're late! We should have been there by now!" she said frantically.

Bill took hold of her by the shoulders. "Calm down" he said, smiling at her panic, "Claudia isn't going to leave just because we're a bit late. Just go and wait in the car okay, we won't be a moment!"

Azaria zipped out to the car and I heard the door open and close.

"We won't be a moment...will we!" he said, pointedly.

"No, no, don't worry!" I said tugging a comb through my hair and rummaging in my bag for a lipstick. "I guess I can take this silver necklace off now?"

"Oh yes, good idea!" said Bill.

"It certainly was!" I replied with a laugh as we went back out to the car.

We spent a very pleasant evening with Claudia and Chris. Dan and Azaria got on together very well and he seemed really keen to see her again so Bill reluctantly agreed to let her go for a drink with him the following night.

"I'll get her back by five, I promise" said Dan earnestly, obviously overawed by Bill in full overprotective father mode.

"You'll get her back by four!" said Bill sternly.

Azaria made a face at him and I could see him struggling not to laugh and ruin his "strict parent" image.

We said goodbye with promises to meet up again soon and headed back home.

I was curled up in bed when Bill came in from the bathroom. He stood beside the bed and looked down at me seriously.

"Are you okay Alex?" he asked.

"Yes, yes I'm fine, really" I sighed.

"No, you're not are you?" He sat down beside me on the bed. "Something's wrong, you're upset, I can feel it, I've been feeling it ever since we left XS. Did the club upset you, frighten you?"

"Oh...it was just that policeman, when you and Anastasia went out...he said something that annoyed me a little that's all."

"Do you mean the vampire?" he asked, puzzled.

"No, it was the human."

"What did he say to you Alex? I can see that it's upset you!" He kissed me gently, "please tell me?"

I sighed. "Oh it was just the usual stuff, you know….that I shouldn't trust you because of what you are…."

He looked down at me seriously. "You've heard all that before, this was different wasn't it?"

I sighed, "Okay, when I said that I trusted you he replied that I was a fool. That sooner or later the hunger would take over, and when it did that I would be "nothing but food" to you." I lay still watching him for a moment, watching the various emotions chase each other across his handsome face. First surprise, then anger and finally resignation.

"Well?" I said. "It's the same rubbish they all say, right? They don't know you like I do!"

Bill got into bed and lay down beside me. He began to trace patterns on my arm with his fingers. He seemed to be steeling himself to say something difficult, I thought I knew the signs.

"Oh Alex, my precious" he said "when we first met, when I first began to care for you, I swore to myself that I would always be honest with you, even if it hurt me to do so. I'm going to be honest with you now and I don't think you're going to like what I have to say. I certainly don't like it myself." He reached over and pulled me into his arms, stroking my hair gently.

"You remember what happened that night when you came home after being away for two weeks."

"Yes, I remember" I answered, looking up at him trustingly.

"I told you that there is something in me, in all of us, a beast, a monster, which can take over. Most of us manage to keep it suppressed, under control, for most of the time. But it's still there, beneath the surface."

I looked up at him with a puzzled expression. "Yes, you told me this at the time." I said.

He took a deep breath. "I told you it was there, and that I tried not to allow it to take me over. What I didn't tell you, what I didn't dare to tell you, is that...when it does...I enjoy it..." He buried his face in my hair, unable to look me in the eyes.

I was silent for a moment and then whispered in his ear "Well...I enjoyed it too, I told you that, remember?"

"No, that's not what I meant. It's the loss of control,...the freedom, it's...exhilarating. The feeling that you can do anything, absolutely anything you want, and no-one could stop you. When I was first turned, when I realised that...that there was no going back, I tried to please Lorena by embracing what she called "our nature" I became that monster, Alex. The one you glimpsed that night. Became it completely. I did things which I'm so ashamed of now, things which I could never tell you about, things which I will regret for as long as I walk the earth. But that wasn't the worst part, the worst part was that I...I enjoyed it, Alex! I relished my strength, my power over humans. I killed simply to satisfy the beast, without a thought, without even a trace of regret..."

"But you regret it now?" I asked quietly.

"Yes" he whispered.

I felt him sigh and shift in my arms. "Bill" I whispered "When I first met you I was frankly terrified. When I fell backwards in the bookshop and I felt your arms around me, I panicked. I didn't even know why at the time. I just knew that you weren't human, that you were dangerous. But you didn't behave as though you were. You were kind and gentle with me, you never tried to influence me or persuade me to do anything and I grew to trust you, but I still knew that you were dangerous, I've always known that. I trust you absolutely Bill, but I know that you're not human and I don't expect you to behave or to react as if you were. I accept that I don't know everything about you and I don't suppose I ever will."

"I don't mean to keep anything from you, you know that." He said softly "it's just that there are some things...that you probably wouldn't want to know."

I sighed and snuggled up to him. "This is something to do with Anastasia isn't it? Could you tell me how you met her?"

"Yes, of course. You know I'll tell you anything you want to know" he said. It was immediately after I left London after leaving Lazlo's house. You remember I told you that I left after advising your great grandmother Daisy to leave when she got the chance…."

* * *

**London 1935**

I didn't really know what I was going to do when I left Lazlo's place in Belgravia. I only knew that I had to get away from him.

Gerry drove me to Paddington and we said goodbye outside the station. I promised that I would try to keep in touch with him and after one look back at me, he got back into Lazlo's car and drove away. I checked my trunk into the luggage office and placed the little ticket in my wallet, then wandered over to the ticket office and looked at the board. The names of the towns meant very little to me as I had not been any distance outside London since I had arrived. I ran my eyes down the list until I came to Oxford. I knew that there was a famous University there, in fact it was the only name I recognised! Right, Oxford it would be then. I bought myself a ticket and boarded the train.

It was quite late when I reached Oxford and I had no idea where I should go next. It would be dawn in a few hours and after a few moments thought I decided that I should head out into the countryside where I might find somewhere to go to ground for the day. I was strolling along the river when I came to a bench placed next to the riverside path and sat down for a moment to relax and try to pull my thoughts into some sort of order. I had been sitting on the bench staring out at the river for a few minutes when I became aware that someone was approaching warily down the path. I looked up and saw a woman standing a dozen feet away gazing at me with an interested expression. I was just about to get up and politely excuse myself when I realised that she was vampire.

She stood and regarded me for a moment and then said "May I join you?"

I got up and said "If you wish, please do."

She was small and delicate with the oval face of a renaissance Madonna and the kind of body that would make a saint break his vows for the promise of just one hour in her arms. She smiled sweetly and came towards me, the way that she moved and held herself somehow telling me that she was well aware of the effect she was having on me.

"So who are you?" she asked "I know all the vampires in this area, I've never seen you before. I'm sure I would have remembered!" Her emerald green eyes slid over me approvingly.

"My name is Compton, William Compton. I arrived only a few hours ago from London."

"Hello William" she said with a smile which made a shiver run down my spine. "My name is Anastasia Lucaccio." She paused, and looked at me thoughtfully. "Do you have anywhere to go?" she asked.

"Well...no" I said. "I was planning to head out into the countryside and go to ground there."

She gave a delicate little shudder. "How very...fundamentalist of you!" she said "If a trifle uncomfortable. I'm sure I can offer you a better solution."

I sat back and watched her for a moment wondering if I should trust her. She smiled and reached over to stroke my cheek with a carefully manicured hand. "It's all right" she said "I don't mean you any harm William. You don't trust me do you, now why is that I wonder?"

I sat back on the bench and smiled at her. "Perhaps you remind me too much of my maker" I said.

"Hmmm...your maker was a woman? Where is she?" she asked.

"I don't know, neither do I care. I last saw her in Los Angeles, where she released me." I explained, watching her carefully.

She sat absolutely still, gazing at me in apparent fascination. I noticed the tip of her pink tongue emerge and lick her lips gently "What kind of fool was she to let you go?" she asked.

"I gave her no choice" I sighed "I was ready to destroy myself if she refused."

"Oh! I see, that was it."

I must have looked puzzled because she laughed. "Surely, you didn't think you were the only one? That no-one else had ever felt that way?" She smiled gently at me. "Oh, poor William! It is rare for one of us to choose this fate. Most are turned against their will, but some accept their destiny far more readily than others. You, I can see, did not." She placed her small hand over my large one and said sympathetically "you had a family?"

"A wife" I murmured "and two children."

"That must have been hard." she said quietly "Come with me William, let me give you somewhere to rest at least?"

I wondered for a moment if I was making the same mistake that I had made with Lazlo. But if I didn't trust her, then I would never know would I? And besides, I was very interested in her, I couldn't help myself. I got up from the bench and smiled at her.

"That's very kind of you" I said. "I would be delighted."

I offered her my arm and we walked back through the streets of Oxford looking very much like any other couple out for a stroll in the moonlight. I know that I could not keep my eyes off her and I was sure she was well aware of the fact. She led me to a substantial three storey Georgian house on the end of a smart terrace, climbed up the three steps and opened the door. Inside was a short corridor leading to a staircase and she gestured to me to precede her up the stairs. As I headed up the stairs I noticed that the windows had all been bricked up, and that it had evidently been done a long time ago. Obviously the place was designed with vampires in mind.

"What is this place?" I asked as she stepped up onto the first floor landing alongside me.

"This is...a club" she explained. "It's somewhere that our kind can visit where they don't have to hide what they are. Somewhere they can be themselves."

Somehow, after my recent experiences, that didn't seem like a good thing to me. I had a nasty suspicion that Lazlo's parties might be nothing compared to this place. Did all vampires live like this? I wondered. Was I really so out of step with my own kind?

She stood watching me shrewdly. "You don't like the idea" she said. It was not a question. She could see the distaste written on my face. "You don't understand William. My clients, the vampires who come here, live as you would like to live. Amongst humans, as humans insofar as they can. The come here when they have to. When the pull of their vampire nature becomes too great to resist, and it does William, believe me." She opened one of the doors into a room containing a large four poster bed. The room was dark and full of shadows and the furnishings were all dark as well, even the sheets on the bed appeared to be black. "They come here to indulge their appetites in secret" she explained "so that they can live normally for the rest of the time."

"You provide them with...what?" I asked.

"I give them what they need William. Blood and sex" she turned to me and said "it's what you need isn't it?"

I opened my mouth to deny it but she placed a finger over my lips. "No...don't say anything yet. It will be dawn soon, please stay here for the day, we can talk later."

She turned and slipped out leaving me alone in the darkness. I stood for a moment wondering if I had simply exchanged one horror for another. Then I decided that she was right, I needed rest. I would worry about it later. I stripped off my clothes, got into the bed, sinking into the deep feather mattress and fell asleep almost instantly.

I woke a little after dusk, a trifle disorientated. The room was dark and it took me a moment to recall where I was. I lay for a while going over what Miss Lucaccio had told me last night then climbed out of the huge four poster bed to find a note on the chair where I had left my clothes. They had apparently been taken away to be laundered. I suddenly realised that the rest of my belongings, such as they were, were in the left luggage office on Paddington Station.

I noticed that a fine embroidered silk robe lay over the back of the chair. Well, at least I wouldn't be wandering around stark naked! Although it appeared that I would not be leaving anytime soon either. I put the robe on, opened the door carefully and peered out. The corridor outside was dark and empty but I could see a line of light under a door at the end of the passageway and I realised that I could hear music coming from behind the door. I stood in the corridor for a moment. wondering what I should do, feeling too embarassed to enter the room dressed only in the silk robe, when the door opened and a vampire emerged

He flicked his long pale hair back over his shoulder and looked me over in an interested manner. "Well hello!" he said "you're new aren't you?"

"Well, yes. I suppose I am" I replied with a smile, glancing past him into the room beyond. The music was coming from a string quartet, obviously human, but each with that glazed expression that showed they had been glamoured. The other occupants of the room all appeared to be vampires and in various stages of undress. I began to feel a little more comfortable, overdressed even. There was a haze of what appeared to be cigarette smoke in the air, but the smell was somehow heavier, sweeter.

"I thought I hadn't seen you before" he said. Please, come in. He put his hand in the small of my back and pushed me gently towards the door, easing himself in behind me.

"I thought you were leaving Maurice?" came Miss Lucaccio's voice from the far corner of the room.

"I've changed my mind!" he said. "You didn't tell us you had a new guest!"

"Well, I haven't really had a chance have I?" she smiled at me. "I only met William yesterday." She stood up and held out her hands to me. She was wearing a similar embroidered robe, the sash tied loosely around her waist, leaving the front of the robe to fall open almost, but not quite, revealing her breasts. I got the distinct impression that she was well aware of this. That everything she did was carefully planned. I wondered what she had planned for me. I turned to look beyond her and saw an archway into another room where, rather to my shock, I could see several groups of people, both vampire and human sprawled naked on the couches. I looked back to see her bright green eyes had followed my gaze.

"Would you care to join us William?" she asked.

"N...No, thank you, but I think I've made a mistake!" I said hurriedly. "I should be leaving." I pulled my hands from hers and slipped out of the room. I walked back down the corridor, feeling stunned and worse, aroused. That was the worst part. When she had asked if I wanted to join them, I had really wanted to say yes. I was sitting on the edge of the bed wondering how I could get my clothes back and leave wthout offending her when the door opened and she came in. She stood with her back to the door for a moment, just watching me and then slipped the robe from her shoulders and walked towards me, completely naked.

"Don't you want me William?" she asked softly.

The whole ambiance of the place was redolent of sex. The music, the smoke, her rich, heady perfume. The fact that I knew there were people, both human and vampire in the other rooms on the couches in pairs and in groups, naked and indulging every kind of appetite meant that the very air smelled of sex. By this time I was hard as marble and my mind appeared to have gone completely blank. I knew I wanted her, badly, I struggled to think about anything else, but something still stopped me, held me back.

She pulled open the ties of the silk robe and ran her hand down my bare chest, her sharp fingernails scratching at the hair. "You hated her didn't you? Your maker... She used you? Then let me help you. Use me. I want you and I know you want me too." I gave a gasp as she began to rub her naked body against mine. "I want it" she breathed "all that hate and bitterness, until you release that you will never be free of her."

As she spoke I felt something deep inside me, some restraint, melt away and I knew that she was right, that I had to have her. I stepped forwards backing her up against the edge of the bed. She smiled and let herself fall backwards, her pale slim body standing out starkly against the dark sheets, her legs spread invitingly. I put one knee on the bed and grasped her body, turning her over, pulling her up onto her hands and knees and mounted her from behind like an animal.

She threw her head back and snarled, her fangs fully out, as I reached forward and twisted her thick glossy black hair around my wrist, holding her in place, riding her hard. She reared up before me, pushing herself back against my naked flesh, writhing against me, urging me on with little cries of encouragement. I released her hair and ran my hands down her sleek, pale body to grasp her by the hips, holding her steady as I drove myself into her, my knees spread on either side of hers.

Since I left Lorena I had found many human women who were attracted to me, who wanted my body, and I had been happy to oblige them. Although I was always careful to hold the worst of my lust in check, not to let myself hurt them, I found to my shock and disgust that I sometimes missed the wild, violent, unrestrained sex I had been used to with Lorena. At the time I had hated it, hated the way she used me, but I had to admit that she had been right in her assessment of my physical needs. I had never felt this way during my lifetime. The thought of doing anything like this to my beloved Caroline filled me with horror. No, this was the beast, the monster which now lived within me. He wanted this and he would not be denied for long.

"Yes! Oh William...that's right..." she was moaning with pleasure now, squirming against my thighs. Suddenly with a little cry she wriggled out of my grasp and pulled away from me. The beast within me snarled and reached for her again but she slipped away from me and lay down on the bed on her back, smiling up at me in anticipation. I flung myself on her and thrust myself back inside her with another snarl. She gave a contented sigh and reached around me running her hands down my back. I felt her hands move downwards and then she had grasped my buttocks in her hands, digging her long fingernails into my flesh pulling me into her. I reared up and back, shocked by the pain and she sank her fangs into my throat causing me to explode inside her in the kind of ecstatic climax I had never before experienced.

After a short while I rolled off her and lay on my back on the bed, stunned by the speed and power of what had just happened. Anastasia turned onto her side and examined me for a moment.

"Not bad...not bad at all for one so young" she said thoughtfully.

I must have looked highly offended as she collapsed in my arms laughing hysterically. "Oh William!" she cried "you are so sweet! and so innocent!" she looked at me speculatively, stretching her body out across the bed like a little cat and watching with approval as my member began to twitch and stiffen at the sight. "You have so much potential" she said lazily "there's so much I can teach you about how to please a woman."

I laughed. "You mean how to please a vampire! What makes you think I would want to learn that?" I loathe the thought of what I have become. I'm ashamed of it."

"Oh, poor William!" she whispered trailing a long fingernail down my stomach, making the flesh jump and twitch. I noticed with a slight shock that the tips of her fingernails were red with my blood. "So beautiful but so…..conflicted. You hate what you do and yet you long for it…..you tell yourself that you don't want to take me again, right now! But I know you do!" Her trailing hand had reached my betraying manhood which was standing up hard and eager for her. She curled her hand around it, drawing a groan from my lips. "This tells me the truth." She murmured. "Do you think that human females want something different from you? They don't, they want the same things I do."

I sighed. "Don't be foolish woman!" I said. "I could never do that to a human...I'd likely kill her!"

She laughed softly and placed her arm across my chest. "So you will need to learn to do it...differently. To be less...harsh, but to produce the same effect. I can teach you. Believe me, if you can learn to please me then you could have any human woman you want!"

I turned on my side and looked into her bright green eyes. "Why are you doing this?" I asked.

"Why, because I enjoy it!" she said "It's probably the only reason I do anything!"

I chuckled. "No, I meant why me?"

She lay on her stomach, her chin propped on her hands and gazed at me for a moment. "Because I want to help you" she said quietly. "as soon as I saw you by the river I could see it in you, a sadness, bone-deep sadness. You are so beautiful William, I couldn't just walk away and leave you. Let me try to help you?"

I couldn't help but smile back at her. "Very well" I said. "Perhaps I'll stay for a while."

* * *

"I stayed for four years, until the War broke out in 1939." said Bill ruefully. I never really meant to, but somehow it was almost impossible to leave her!"

"Did you love her?" I asked.

Bill smiled. "No, I didn't love her. And she didn't love me. There was...affection, yes. We were fond of each other. But it was not love."

"What happened when the War broke out?" I asked.

"We both decided to leave England. It would have been too dangerous to stay. We travelled together to France and then split up. She wanted to go back to Italy, I tried to dissuade her but she was determined. I was afraid that I would never see her again but she is a lot tougher than she looks." He smiled. "When I returned to Oxford in the 80's she was back at the club as if nothing had happened."

"What did you do after you split up." I asked.

"Well, actually I was picked up by a German patrol in occupied France and interned. But I managed to glamour my way out of it and escaped to North Africa. To Morocco."

"What on earth did you do there?"

"Well, believe it or not, I got a job!" he said proudly.

"No!...Really? Doing what?"

Bill lay back with a reminiscent smile. "I was a nightclub singer!" he said with a laugh.

I laughed as well. "You're joking!"

"No, actually I'm perfectly serious" he said. "I played the piano and sang in a nightclub in Marrakesh called The Purple Veil."

I stared at him astonished. "I know I said that I didn't know everything about you and I didn't suppose I ever would, well I don't know the half of it do I?"

Bill chuckled. "No, you don't sweetheart. Perhaps I'll tell you about it one day." He leaned over and kissed me.

"So" I giggled, stretching out on my back "Anastasia taught you a lot about how to please a woman huh? So...how much of those lessons do you remember?"

Bill leaned back and relaxed. "Oh! All of them!" he said with a laugh. "In hundreds of positions. I know the Kama Sutra back to front and sideways." He grinned at me wickedly "sideways is quite fun actually!"

I started to laugh too. "Come on! There aren't that many in there...are there?"

"What!" he said, putting on a shocked expression "you don't believe me?" He rolled over onto his side, facing me "I can see I'll have to demonstrate!" He reached over, took hold of my left leg and lifted it up over his hip, turning my body away from him. He pulled me closer so that I lay on my back at ninety degrees from him, one leg flung over his hip and the other over his thigh. He put a hand under my bottom and eased his hips forward until I felt his thick shaft slide over my already wet lips.

He lifted my bottom off the bed with his hand and the head of his swollen member slid neatly between my lips and into my entrance. With a swift flick of his hips and a pull with his hand he half drove himself into me and half pulled me onto him.

"Oh Bill!...that feels... so good!" I groaned, pushing my legs apart. My thighs sliding over his cool skin, one over his waist and the other over his thigh. My feet flat on the bed behind him. My body was stretched out across the bed sideways with my hair falling over the far edge as Bill gently flexed his hips, working himself deep inside me. His hand slipped around and I felt his long fingers probing between my legs, spreading my lips wider and moving in time with his thrusts. I gasped and tried to push myself up with my feet, arching my back to give him better access, my hands grasping convulsively at the sheets.

Bill moved his upper body towards me and reached for my arm with his other hand, I felt his tongue curling around my fingers and his soft lips planting kisses on the palm of my hand and then suddenly I felt the sharp pain of his fangs piercing my wrist and the blankness in my mind exploded into a field of stars as I felt Bill's familiar intense pleasure at the taste of my blood pour into me through the bond.

After a while I felt Bill move away and he reached over and picked me up, I hung in his arms, limp as a rag doll and he laid me down carefully and pulled the quilt up over me. He leaned over and gave me a gentle kiss. "One down, ninety nine to go!" he whispered, his bright blue eyes alight with mischief.

"Oh please no!" I gasped "you'll kill me! I believe you, honestly!"

He laughed. "Well I wasn't planning on demonstrating them all tonight! Are you okay?"

"I think so" I answered. "Except that my legs feel like they belong to someone else!"

Bill laughed again. "Anyone in particular?" he asked giggling. "They certainly feel like yours!"

"Don't be so silly! I meant they feel like they're made of jelly! You've worn me out!"

I turned to him and asked suddenly "do you miss her?"

"Who?" asked Bill surprised.

"Anastasia" I said "or, not necessarily her specifically. Do you miss...female vampires?" I paused, unsure of how to frame the question. "I know you hold yourself back when you make love to me Bill, that you don't want to hurt me. Don't you sometimes wish...that you didn't have to. That you could let the beast loose and not have to worry about hurting someone?" I lay silently watching Bill, almost wishing that I hadn't asked the question. Afraid of what his answer might be.

"Perhaps" he said quietly after a moment's thought. "Sometimes...yes. I miss being able to let go, to..." he paused and shook his head. "But I think that being with you is worth it" he whispered, pulling me closer.

"But you miss the sex?" I asked "You miss not having to worry about hurting your partner?" I looked over at Bill wondering what the hell I was doing. Why couldn't I leave this alone? It was like picking at a scab, I knew I shouldn't do it, but I had to know.

"It's hard to describe how our…..well, lust I suppose…for sex and for blood is so strong. As we get older we are better able to control it" he explained haltingly. "Although many don't want to." He gave me a slightly guilty look "I can understand why. The pleasure is simply unbelievably intense. It would be easy to become addicted to it. It's complicated" he said with a sigh. "Let me try to explain. Vampires who are not tied to each other as maker and progeny don't generally tend to be in relationships, at least not for very long. Any relationship between two vampires tends to be about power, rather than friendship, or companionship. The older is in a position of power over the younger. My relationship with Lorena was like this. She relished the fact that she had power over me. Many makers don't actually release their progeny but at least allow them a measure of independence. Lorena refused to do this, she was obsessed with me, with a need to make me love her, something which I could never do."

I lay propped up on my elbows and watched him. "I've read theories about relationships between humans and vampires" I said."They claim that humans who are in relationships with vampires are naturally submissive, that they want to be dominated."

Bill stared at me in astonishment for a moment and then burst out laughing. "Well, yes that's probably true in a large number of cases" he chuckled. "But I'm having a little trouble seeing how it applies to you!" He leaned over me and whispered seductively "do you feel a need to be dominated?"

I grinned up at him. "Only on special occasions!" I said.

He laughed again. "What was I saying? Oh yes, vampire relationships…..they tend not to last long but they can be very intense simply because of the sex. In fact we are the classic example which proves that there must be more to a relationship than just sex, no matter how mind-blowing. This is also why many vampires seek relationships with humans, because they can dominate them." He eyed me speculatively, "well, some of them at least. They are the stronger and have the most power in the relationship, which is what they want most, even if the sex is not quite so incredible."

I thought about that night, the night when he had lost control and taken me with a truly animal passion. I had honestly believed for a moment at least, that he might kill me. But the ecstatic pleasure he had given me had been so intense that I had not cared. But I knew that he was right. That kind of intensity was dangerous. For me certainly, but also for him. His horror and remorse when he realised what he had done had been almost equally intense. I knew I could never let him do that again.

"So you have the worst of both worlds then!" I said cheerfully. "You don't get to dominate me or to get the mind-blowing sex either?"

Bill stared at me for a moment and then burst out laughing again. He pulled me into his arms and hugged me so tightly that, for a moment I could hardly breathe. I gave a little squeak of alarm and he released me. I screwed up my courage and took a deep breath. "If you ever felt that you needed to...do that..." I looked into the depths of his blue eyes. "I'd understand."

Bill lay silent and absolutely still, staring at me. "Are you saying you'd understand if I had sex with someone else?" he asked incredulously "another vampire?" He paused for a moment "because I could never do that with you...not again. I couldn't risk hurting you. When I saw what I had done to you I..." his voice faltered and stopped.

"I wouldn't like it" I said quietly "but I think I could live with it. I'm beginning to realise that there are...adjustments I'll have to make, if I'm to be with you. It's like I said earlier. I know you're not human, I appreciate that you have different ...needs, requirements. When you bite me it's...the pleasure is not only from the bite, the sexual rush, it's from knowing that you want me, that there's something of me that you need, and I can give it to you. Can you understand that?" I paused, looking up at him, struggling to find the words I needed, to explain. "But I know that there are things you need that I can't give you. Well, at least..." Bill put his arms around me and pulled me close into his embrace. Bloody tears marred the brilliant blue of his eyes as he whispered "Alex my precious darling, anything that you can't give me, I can live without."


	3. Chapter 3

I did not wake the next evening until well after dusk. Bill was already awake and lying beside me. He leaned over to give me a kiss and just as I was kissing him back his phone rang. I let him go reluctantly and he picked it up, frowning slightly at the screen showing "Unknown Number".

He rolled over to face me and said "Hello?"

"Am I speaking to Mr Compton?" The voice was slightly muffled but sounded vaguely familiar.

"Yes, this is Bill Compton."

"Ah, good evening Mr Compton. This is Inspector Felton, we met yesterday. I got your number from Ms Lucaccio, she said that you were representing her in this matter?"

Bill sighed "Well yes I suppose so" he said "have there been any developments?"

"You could say that Sir" said Felton, his voice tight with suppressed anger. "We've found one of the missing girls. Dead. Body dumped beside the river."

I gave a little gasp and put my hand over my mouth "Oh no!" I breathed at Bill.

"Same bite marks?" asked Bill quietly.

"Yes" said Felton. "I wondered if you might like to come down here and take a look Sir?" he asked hesitantly. "There may be some….insight that you can give us. Frankly we need all the help we can get!"

"Well, yes of course Inspector" said Bill getting out of bed and reaching for his jeans. "Anything I can do to help I'll be happy to do." He picked up a notepad and pen from the bedside table, "give me the address." He wrote rapidly on the pad and said "I'll be there in ten minutes." I lay back in bed watching him dress quickly and stuff the paper in his jeans pocket. He came over to me and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I'd better be going" he said. "I don't know how long I'll be but I'll call you if I'm going to be late."

"You take as much time as you need" I said "If you can do anything to help then please, take your time!"

He gave me a kiss and got up. "Don't forget, Dan's coming round to pick up Azaria later."

"You don't seriously think she's going to let me forget that?" I said with a laugh.

"He's to get her back by four, remember!" he said as he went out.

"Yes dear!" I called.

Bill stuck his head back around the door and glared at me. "Don't you try and humour me!" he growled "I mean it!"

I smiled at him. "I won't forget" I said in as reassuring a tone as I could manage.

He grinned back at me and left.

I drove out towards the river wondering what exactly I would find when I got there. I had never been involved in a Police investigation before and was a little nervous as to how the rest of the Police team would take my involvement. As I drove down the lane the Inspector had mentioned I could see blue flashing lights ahead and pulled up next to a group of Police cars. As I got out of the car a constable came over to me.

"I'll have to ask you to move your car please Sir, this is a restricted area."

"I'm here to see Inspector Felton" I explained. "I'm William Compton."

The constable looked blank. "He is expecting me" I said.

He nodded to me and turned away speaking into his radio. There was a crackle and a reply which I could not quite hear and he turned back to me and said "This way please Sir." He escorted me further down the lane and under a line of Police tape until we came out on the river bank. With a sudden shock of recognition I realised that this was the very place where I had first met Anastasia back in 1935!

"Ah, Mr Compton, good evening Sir." I turned to see the Inspector coming over to me. "Good of you to come over so quickly Sir" he said. "Would you come with me please? We haven't moved the body yet, the doctor is there now." We walked a little way along the bank to where a small tent-like structure had been erected over the body and ducked inside. I crouched down beside the body on the opposite side from the doctor and gazed down sadly at the dead girl. She was lying on her back, her arms at her sides. "Her name was Alice Manville and she went missing from Magdalen the day before yesterday" said Felton quietly. The doctor reached over and brushed the long blonde hair back from her throat revealing a bite wound which had obviously been done by a vampire.

I sighed and reached down to brush my hand over her cold cheek. "Well that's definitely a vampire bite" I said. "There's no evidence of healing so it was probably done at the time of death. I take it that there was no blood evident around the body?"

"It was almost completely exsanguinated" said the doctor. I saw Felton frown slightly. "No blood" I explained. I reached for the dead girl's arm. "May I?" I asked. The doctor nodded and I picked up the right arm and pushed the sleeve of Alice's sweater up to her elbow.

"Oh! That's interesting!" the doctor leaned over the body to examine the further two bite marks which I had revealed. One on the inside of the wrist and one on the inside of the elbow. "Those marks look older to me. There's been some healing, a day or so? Wouldn't you say?" he looked up at me.

"Yes" I agreed "Although vampire bites heal quicker than you would expect, there's something in our saliva which promotes healing after feeding. It looks as though she was taken a couple of days ago and has been fed on until she was killed and then dumped here." The Inspector looked a little sick and one or two of the constables who had been peering in, disappeared suddenly. I squatted beside the body feeling distinctly uncomfortable, unable to look Felton in the eye. I looked down at the ground instead and as I did so I caught a glimpse of something in the grass.

"What's this?" I asked, careful not to actually touch it.

Felton came over and squatted beside me. "There were some footprints" he said. "They've all been photographed, although the tread isn't very clear, they might help if we had something to match them to."

"Not the prints, there's something in the grass here, pressed into the mud." I indicated a tiny metal pin poking up through the mud.

The Inspector squinted down into the dark grass. "Damn, you've got good eyesight Sir!" he said, then looked up at me and said "Oh!...right, vampire" he grinned up at me. "Slipped my mind for a moment there!" He reached into his pocket, pulled out a pair of tweezers and gently worked the little pin out of the earth. It was attached to a round button, a little badge of the kind that students often wear to demonstrate their attachment to a particular cause. The doctor passed over a plastic bottle of water which the Inspector used to wash the mud off the button to see the logo printed on it.

I froze. The button was black with a stylised yellow sun.

"Just a decorative badge by the look of it" said the Inspector, examining it.

"No… It's not just decorative" I said quietly. "That's the symbol of The Warriors of Ra. They are a particularly nasty group of anti-vampire activists."

Inspector Felton stared at me for a moment. "So what does that mean?" he said, speaking more to himself than to me.

"Could she have been a member?" I asked. "Perhaps that was the reason she was chosen? Could that be the link?"

"Not according to her friends, none of the girls were members of any organisation other than the tennis club!"

"A sympathiser perhaps? She wouldn't necessarily tell her friends about it. They're not very pleasant people to be associated with!"

Felton sighed. "We tried this from both angles" he said. "Obviously we were looking for a link between them but none of the girls belonged to, or appeared to sympathise with, any anti-vampire organisation. Neither were we able to turn up any indication that any of the girls knew any vampires, and as you pointed out yesterday, they all appear to have been abducted during the daytime." He paused for a moment in thought. "Would you say that those other bite marks showed that she had been with a vampire before she was taken?" he asked tentatively.

"Not necessarily" I answered. "She's been missing for two days now, they could have been done during that time."

I thought for a moment. "They were all taken during the day" I said. "What if the badge didn't belong to her, but to her abductor?"

"You think she might have been taken by The Warriors of Ra?" said Felton, surprised. "But I thought you said they hated vampires, why would they be working for one?

"I don't know" I said "I'm just thinking aloud here. Perhaps….they're tracking him, finding his kills and leaving them out in the open in the hope that he'll be caught?" I thought for a moment. "No, that wouldn't work, they're bringing the girls to him. They're using him, to make a point, "vampires are evil and dangerous" but why would he allow it? Unless…." A truly horrible possibility occurred to me.

"Unless he's working with them" I said.

"Why on earth would a vampire do that?" asked Felton.

I sighed "There are those of us who do not approve of the current…situation, Inspector" I said. "Factions, both within The Vampire Authority and outside who think that the Revelation was a mistake, who want to go back to the way we lived before. They are either too stupid or too arrogant to see that it's impossible." I twisted to face him. "This vampire could, just possibly, be working with the Warriors in the hope that the publicity generated by these killings will drive us back underground."

There was a disturbance outside and a constable stuck his head in through the tent flap. "We need some help out here Inspector!" he said.

Felton and I stood up and made our way out of the tent to see several police officers trying to restrain a couple who were struggling to reach the tent. The woman was in floods of tears.

"It's her isn't it Inspector!" she cried "It's my baby…"

Inspector Felton's face told her all she needed to know and she leaned on the man's shoulder weeping as he tried to comfort her. I stayed back as Felton spoke quietly to the man, who I assumed was Mr Manville. Telling him that they would need to come to the hospital later to formally identify the body. Suddenly he looked up at me.

"He's one of them!" he said angrily, his face twisted with shock and fury. "What's he doing here?"

"Mr Compton is assisting my investigation" said Felton soothingly. "He has….skills and information we can use to find your daughter's killer."

"You're telling me you need help from them! They're the ones who are responsible!" he yelled furiously.

Suddenly the woman pulled away from her husband and came towards me. "We don't need your help" she said. I turned to face her just in time to see her arm swing back as she slapped me, hard, across the face. The sudden pain made my fangs run out involuntarily and she jumped back, two constables taking hold of her arms.

Inspector Felton put his hand on my arm. "Are you okay?" he asked. "That was assault, in front of Police witnesses, you could press charges" he admitted, although he didn't look very happy about this idea. There was a slight snick as my fangs clicked back and I smiled weakly at him. "No, I'm fine…..it's okay, I quite understand. I should be leaving now anyway."

I turned to Mrs Manville. "I'm very sorry for your loss Mrs Manville" I said "I'll do all I can to find this vampire, I promise you." I turned and walked back to my car, the groups of Police officers parting silently to let me pass.

Just as I was getting into the car I heard my name called and turned to see a constable running up the lane.

"Just a moment Sir!" he called. "The Inspector wants to speak to you!"

I got out of the car and saw the Inspector coming up the lane towards us. He was holding a radio.

"Mr Compton!" he panted.

"Call me Bill" I said with a smile.

"I've just had a call from the station. They've had an emergency call from the hospital. A young man was brought in with head injuries, when he came round he said he was hit over the head and his girlfriend was abducted, so naturally they called me, but I didn't see that it could be linked to this case since the girl was a vampire. But then he mentioned your name."

I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. "What's his name? the young man?" I asked.

"Knight" said the Inspector. "Daniel Knight."

"Dan! Oh no!" I cried, stunned.

"You know him?" asked Felton.

"Yes!" I said "The girl who was taken? It's Azaria! My daughter!"

"Your daughter? I didn't think…"

"It's complicated" I said, cutting him off and getting into the car. I certainly didn't feel like giving him an explanation of vampire relationships at this point.

"I have to go. Thanks Inspector. I'll call you if I have any information." I backed the car out and raced off up the muddy lane and back to the Mill House.

* * *

I was relaxing with a book on one of the sofas in front of the fire when the door was flung open with a bang and Bill burst in.

"Have you heard anything?" he asked looking frantic with worry.

"Anything about what?" I asked.

"Azaria!" he said

"Dan picked her up about an hour ago." I looked at the clock. "She's not due back for hours yet Bill!"

"She's missing" he said "Dan's in the hospital. Inspector Felton got the call when I was with him." He started pacing up and down the hall.

"Is Dan okay?" I asked.

"Yes. I called the hospital and spoke to him. He said they were on their way to the restaurant when they were jumped by four guys. They threw something over Azaria which seemed to incapacitate her, silver I'd guess. When he tried to fight them off one of them must have hit him over the head with something because the next thing he remembers is waking up in hospital."

"Do you think this has something to do with the missing girls?" I asked.

Bill sighed and paused in his pacing, running his hands through his hair. "We come to Oxford for a quiet weekend in the country, Ana asks me to help out in the Police enquiry and, hours later, Azaria's kidnapped? Oh yes, I'd say so wouldn't you?" He thought for a moment. "If it's connected then it has to be someone who knows I was working with the Police, Someone who was at the club last night? What was the name of that guy who was tossed over the balcony?"

"Morgan!" We both said the name together just as the phone rang. Bill zipped over and snatched up the receiver.

"Yes!...Ana?"

He froze, listening and then hit the speaker button and put the phone back down.

"What do you know Ana?" he asked quietly.

"I'm in the office" Anastasia's voice came clearly through the speaker although she was speaking equally quietly. "Morgan is back in the club tonight. He's been talking about a human group he's associated with, an anti-vampire group. The Warriors of Ra?"

Bill gave a little growl "I know them!" he said. "But why on earth would a vampire ally himself with them? They hate us!"

"He's one of those who opposed The Revelation. They hate and despise the Authority and want to bring them down if they can. He was telling us that he has something he can use against Ulrich, a girl. Will...he's got Azaria."

Bill stood absolutely still and silent staring at the phone. "Where? Where is she Ana?" he whispered.

"A warehouse, by the river. That's all I know" she paused. "Will, they're going to kill her. They're going to blame the murders on her and execute her, on tape, and post it on their website. Morgan wants to punish Ulrich and you too. Why you Will?" she asked "what have you done?"

"I turned them in" said Bill in a small shocked voice. "We found one of their badges at the last murder site and I passed it on to the Police. I suggested that they were trying to frame us for the murders, that they must have a renegade vampire working with them. But how could Morgan know that?"

I had a sudden inspiration. "That damned copper!" I said "I knew there was something not right about him. The one who told me I was a fool to trust you? The way he was behaving towards me...he hates vampires. I bet he's working for the Warriors of Ra!"

Looks like I was right!" said Bill.

"Oh my God!" she whispered "You mean he killed those girls!"

"I think so. Do you know who else is at the warehouse?" Bill asked.

"A couple of the warriors and Clovis."

"Who the hell is Clovis?" asked Bill.

"He's Morgan's maker" whispered Anastasia. "Will, he's over eight times your age, you can't take him out on your own!"

"Can you help us Ana?" he asked.

"No...I can't Will. I'm always here, at the club. If I leave he'll know something's up! I'm sorry, I have to go, I'll try and keep him occupied here tonight. That's all I can do!"

"That's okay. You've done enough already...thank you Ana, I won't forget this!"

There was a pause. "Good luck!" she said and then there was a click and the line went dead.

Bill stared at the phone for a moment. "Clovis?" he said "what kind of name is that?"

"He was a king of the Franks" I answered absently, not really concentrating.

"What?" asked Bill.

"Um sorry...I wasn't thinking. I was wondering where this warehouse could be." I pulled myself together with an effort "Clovis was the first king of the Franks in...500AD...510 something like that? Founded the Merovingian Dynasty in France.

Bill was staring at me, astonished.

"What?...I read a lot okay!"

"Okay" he said, sounding a little stunned. "Well he might have simply picked the name because he liked the sound of it. Or his parents may have named him after some ancient king, but if he really is that old I won't stand a chance against him."

"Could you call your new friend the Inspector?" I asked.

"I probably should" said Bill. "But I'm afraid of what might happen to Azaria. If this Clovis is at the warehouse when the Police turn up then he'll simply stake her and try to blame the killings on her!"

I got up and rummaged on a bookshelf for a map I had been looking at earlier. I found it and spread it out on the coffee table. "Look" I said "There are a group of warehouses just here on this Industrial Estate. I remember passing them on the bus yesterday and this one" I put my finger on the map, indicating the last warehouse in the row "looked to be disused. The whole of the Estate would be empty at the weekend as well."

"It's all we've got" said Bill.

"But Bill, you can't go in alone!" I said "If he's there then you'll be in trouble won't you? He's much older than you!"

"I don't see that I have a choice" he answered. "There isn't time to round up any help..." he stopped suddenly and looked thoughtful. "Maybe there is someone who could help us. But it could be very dangerous."

"Who?" I asked.

"She was here the other night." said Bill.

"Oh no! No, no...bad idea!" I said. "I've read the stories, trying to make a deal with faeries never works out right. They're notoriously sneaky!"

Bill coughed. "Um...these are your relatives we're talking about!" he said. "Also, and rather more to the point, Azaria's relatives!" he paused "besides it's not as if I've got a lot of options here!"

"Well fine!" I said. "If she was here you could ask her, but she isn't is she?"

"Can't faeries be summoned?" asked Bill. "Any information gleaned from your extensive reading would be helpful here!"

"I think you have to say their name three times" I said quietly "but seriously Bill, I don't think that the Queen of Air and Darkness would take kindly to being summoned by a mortal."

"I am not a mortal!" said Bill "I'll risk it!"

He moved to stand before the huge fireplace. "Come to me Mab. Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness. Mab, Queen of Winter, I summon thee." Bill's voice echoed through the old house and then fell away to silence. Nothing happened for a moment and I was just about to heave a sigh of relief when there was a blurring in the air before the kitchen door and Mab stepped forward into the hall. She was wearing a snow white robe which appeared to foam at her feet and her luminescent eyes were flickering with anger.

She gave Bill a look which I was sure would have driven a mortal man to his knees. "I said that you had courage" she said. "I see that I was correct. Few mortals would dare to do what you have done."

"I need your help" said Bill simply. "I will happily pay the price."

"Then speak your desire vampire!" she said,

"Power" said Bill "I desire power."

There was a long silence before Mab spoke again. "I find myself disappointed in you vampire" she said coldly. "I had thought you were different. Not like the rest of your kind, interested only in wealth and power."

"You don't understand" said Bill desperately "I need your help to get Azaria back, she's been taken by another vampire, he has allied himself with humans, a group who...oh it would take too long to explain it!" He took a step towards her. "She's missing, I have to help her, it's my fault...!"

"No! It's not your fault Bill." I said. I felt a sudden chill as Mab turned her icy gaze on me.

"I should never have let her go out with Dan!" said Bill bleakly, sitting down and putting his head in his hands.

I went over and sat on the couch next to him. "She was just going out for a drink" I said quietly. "You weren't to know that this would happen, you have to let her live her life. What are you going to do Bill? Lock her up in a tower like a princess in a fairy tale?"

Bill looked up at me and the ghost of a smile crossed his face. "I never thought I'd have any sympathy for those ogres in the fairy tales but now I think I'm beginning to understand them!" He stood up and faced Mab who had been watching us carefully. "I know where she is" he explained "but she won't be there for long. I have neither the time to arrange back up, nor the strength to take on this other vampire and his friends alone. I'm going to get her whether you help me or not, but you were my last hope."

Mab's lips curved into a smile. "Ahh, yes... I see now, you bargain not for your life but for hers, your child." she whispered.

"Your grandchild" said Bill.

She sighed. "I cannot interfere directly on the human plane, our interaction with humans is...complex. I cannot give you my power vampire. The power of the Fae comes from the life force...and you have none. I can only enhance your own power. I can increase that which you already have, make you stronger, faster, and I will gift you this power as I know now that you will use it wisely, but your lover..." She held out her hand to me. "Come to me girl!"

A cold terror appeared in Bill's eyes. "No!...I said I would pay your price, not her."

"Perhaps she is my price vampire." She gave that cold smile again and then suddenly a warmth lit up her luminescent eyes and she turned to look at me. "She has our blood, the blood of the Fae. She has the power you need already, but she does not know it."

I got up and faced Mab. "I have no power your Majesty" I said. "I never have had."

Mab put her head on one side and regarded me carefully. "Think child" she said "was there never a time when you were in danger and you did something...not impossible perhaps, but something you did not think you would be able to accomplish?"

I couldn't help laughing "I've been in danger quite a few times, but I wasn't able to do anything about it! Pity, it would have been damn useful!"

Suddenly Bill gave a little cry. "Lazlo!" he said.

I turned to look at him, puzzled. "I couldn't stop him from biting me could I?" I shivered at the memory. "I only fought him off because I happened to have the piece of silver in my free hand. It was pure luck!"

"That's not what I meant" he said "I was thinking of that frying pan. It's so heavy you can barely lift it to fry eggs and yet when Lazlo had me on the floor you picked it up easily and hit him with it so hard you knocked him out!"

Mab clapped her hands in delight. "Yes! Yes! Of course!" she cried, her strange eyes alight with cool flickering colours. "Not for herself, but for you!" She stepped back a pace and regarded both of us. "So many mortals have tried to bargain with me for power, but almost all wish for power for themselves. You two are...rare... and well matched. Each of you will use your strength to help the other." She turned to me "You already have the gift child" She reached out and placed a cold fingertip on my forehead "in here."

As she touched me it was as if I could almost see her immense power. Or rather I could sense it, swirling around her like a winter storm. The power that is in tornadoes, the unstoppable force of a glacier, a river of ice flowing towards the sea, crushing everything in its path. The power of earthquakes and the slow movement of continents.

"Your power is in your head child" she said. "In your emotions, anger, fear, joy, passion...these are what give you your power. You must reach inside yourself and take the emotion, use it, shape it to your purpose."

"But how?" I asked.

"When you need it" she said "you will know." And suddenly, she was gone.

"Um...okay, did that help at all?" I asked.

Bill walked over to the fireplace and picked up the long cast iron poker. He examined it for a moment and then, quite casually, tied it into a knot. "Yes" he said, turning to look at me "It did!" He looked down at his hands "I feel ten times as strong as I was. I could take on ten Morgans and Clovis as well.

"Easy there Tiger!" I said. "Do you think it's permanent?"

"I don't know" he said "I suggest we make the most of it while we can!"

Ten minutes later we got out of the car on the far side of the Industrial Estate. We circled carefully around to the last warehouse and saw a van parked off to one side. There was a bumper sticker on it with the symbol of The Warriors of Ra.

"Well how stupid is that?" I whispered.

"A trifle overconfident, certainly!" said Bill. "But then no-one ever suggested that these guys were very bright!"

"At least we know this must be the place" I said.

We crept up to the side of the warehouse and stood warily listening.

"I can hear heartbeats" he said "at this distance, this is incredible!" he stood listening carefully for a moment, "five humans. There are three girls still missing, so if they are in there that means there must be two of the warriors in there as well."

"Plus Clovis " I said. "You wouldn't be able to hear him, or Azaria."

Bill disappeared into the shadows at the side of the warehouse and I crouched beside the shrubs, holding my breath. In a few moments he was back.

"Okay" he whispered "there are two areas where I can hear heartbeats. There are two at the front, they are moving about, but staying at the front of the building. Three more towards the rear which don't move at all. I'm guessing that the two moving are the Warriors and the three to the rear are the three girls. There's a door to the rear with an enormous padlock which I think I can break." He put a hand on my arm. "You know I don't like to do this but I think you need to come with me. God knows what Clovis has already done to those girls but if they see another vampire they'll probably panic."

"Okay" I whispered, "I'll come with you." Bill turned to me and I saw his eyes gleaming in the darkness. "Whatever Mab did, it certainly worked" he murmured "I'm sure I can deal with whatever is inside there, but once we get Azaria free, she'll be able to help me so we should try to find her first."

Bill took a last look around and we got up quietly and ran over to the rear of the warehouse. We slipped around the corner and I saw the door Bill had mentioned. It was a small thick looking, steel door with a heavy padlock on it. Bill stood for a moment listening and then took the padlock in his hand and gave a sharp tug. I gasped as the steel hasp snapped and the padlock came apart in his hand. He slid the heavy bolt and gently pushed at the door, which opened with a slight creak. Bill froze listening and then slipped in through the half open door. Moments later he leaned out and beckoned me inside.

It was very dark inside the warehouse. Watery moonlight shone in through the high, dusty windows and I could barely see anything at all. Bill took my hand and drew me forward until my eyes became accustomed to the darkness and I could see three figures in the corner. Each had a set of metal handcuffs around their wrists attached to a chain which was fixed to a metal staple in the concrete wall so that they could move a few feet, but no more than that. They were hunched together in the far corner at the extreme reach of the chain, staring at Bill. The fear in their eyes was obvious and Bill had clearly seen it and stayed back. I crept towards them quietly until I was kneeling on the filthy floor in front of them.

"It's okay" I whispered "don't be afraid, he won't hurt you. We've come to help you." I turned to Bill and gestured at the staple in the wall holding the chain. He moved slowly to the wall, took hold of the staple and ripped it out of the concrete. The girl at the front gave a gasp and the other two tried to hide behind her. Bill stayed where he was and watched me, for a moment I wondered why he didn't smile and then I realised that his anger had probably run out his fangs.

"Okay girls" I whispered. "Now Bill's going to come over and break the handcuffs, he won't hurt you I promise. As I spoke the girl moved slightly and the weak moonlight fell on the bruises on her throat. I reached forward and brushed the hair back revealing several nasty looking bites. "Oh no! Bill, he's been feeding on them."

Bill moved slowly over to us and crouched down in front of me, examining the bite marks. He gave a little involuntary hiss and his fangs were visible for a moment between his slightly parted lips. The girl flinched. I took her hand. "What's your name?" I asked softly.

"Jodie….my name's Jodie" she whispered, not taking her eyes off Bill for a second.

"Who did this to you Jodie?" I asked.

She licked her dry lips and turned to me. "They called him Clovis" she said "he killed Sara and Alice! He...he fed on them, the same way he did with us and then...he just..."

Bill reached forward slowly and said "give me your hands Jodie." She looked at me and I nodded encouragingly. She turned back to Bill and held out her hands obediently. Bill slipped his fingers under the handcuffs against her bloody wrists and, quite gently, tore the cuffs apart. He put them down carefully, mindful of the noise and smiled as the other two girls tentatively pushed their hands towards him. He did the same for them and sat back. I could almost see him resisting the temptation to lick the blood from his fingers.

"Jodie" he said "is there another girl here somewhere? A vampire?"

"They took her through there" said Jodie, pointing to a door in the side wall. There was a blur of movement and Bill was gone. Jodie gave a shocked little cry and jerked backwards.

"Okay girls" I said, "come on, quietly now." I got up and began to herd them gently towards the rear door.

Just as we reached the door there was a shift in the air and Bill appeared by my side. Even I jumped. "Would you please not do that!" I hissed, you even scared me!"

"Sorry" he said "It's Azaria, they've chained her in silver. I can't get it off her…"

I sniffed. "What's that smell?" I looked down in horror at his hands which were blistered with burns. "Oh my God Bill!"

"It's okay, it's healing already. Please, I need you to help me with her."

I turned to the three girls who were clustered beside the door, eyes wide. "Stay here okay, don't go outside, they might be checking the rear of the building. We'll be back in just a moment." Jodie nodded.

Bill took my hand and we ran for the other door. Azaria was chained to the wall in the filthy little room, her hands pulled up above her head, her arms covered with dried blood from where the silver chains had burned into her flesh. As she looked up at me and I saw the helpless expression in her eyes it was as though I felt something snap inside me. I remembered everything she had gone through, all she had suffered. I thought of the two dead girls and the three terrified ones outside and the rage inside me felt almost palpable. I remembered what Mab had said about using emotions and I reached for the anger and pushed it into my hand. Bill gave a shocked gasp as blue flames began to flicker around my outstretched fingers. I reached for the silver chain, took it in my hand and thought "Break!" There was a noise like a gunshot and the chain shattered into thousands of tiny silver shards.

Bill jumped back brushing the pieces from his shirt as Azaria gave a sigh and slumped down into my arms. Bill picked her up and carried her back out into the warehouse and over to the door, putting her down with the three girls. She leaned against the wall and looked up at Bill. "They ambushed us" she said in a small voice. "They used silver on me and they hit Dan over the head...is he okay?"

"Yes, yes he's fine. He has a slight concussion but he'll be okay" said Bill impatiently, "what about you, are you healing?"

Azaria looked down at her wrists "um...not very well" she said.

Bill turned to me. "She needs blood" he said hesitantly "the synthetic stuff just doesn't do it."

"Of course" I said, holding out my wrist to Azaria.

The three girls flinched away from me and even Azaria looked shocked. "Alex! No I couldn't...really" she looked up at Bill who took her face between his hands.

"You must...you need it."

"Azaria" I said "listen, we need you healed. We're not out of here yet and we might need your help."

Azaria looked from me to Bill and then back to me and nodded. "Okay, just this once." She took my wrist in her hand and gave me a little smile, then bit into the vein and began to drink. Immediately I could see the burns on her arms beginning to heal and in a few moments she released me and licked her lips.

"Thanks Alex" she whispered softly.

Just at that moment the door behind us opened and a man came in carrying a shotgun.

"What the...?" he barely had time to take in the scene before Azaria was on him. She flew at him with an inhuman snarl and bore him down onto the concrete floor. He dropped the shotgun and I quickly pulled it back out of his reach with my foot. By this time Azaria had the man, presumably one of the Warriors, flat on his face and was kneeling on his shoulder blades with one of her hands tangled in his hair. She snarled something at him in a language I didn't understand but which I took to mean that if he moved she would rip his head off. He seemed to assume this as well as he lay flat on the floor and didn't move.

Bill was watching her with an approving smile.

"Bill" I said urgently, "there's another one somewhere!"

"There certainly is" said a voice from outside the door. Azaria looked up and froze as a crossbow appeared around the side of the door, the bolt pointing directly at Bill. He stood absolutely still as the man edged carefully through the door. I crouched down silently and picked up the shotgun by the barrel rising and swinging the gun at the same time, aiming just above the crossbow. The warrior stepped through the door just as the wooden stock of the shotgun smashed into his face breaking his nose with an audible snap. He screamed and dropped the crossbow, putting his hands up to his face to try and staunch the flow of blood from his nose. The bolt shot out of the bow and skittered off harmlessly across the floor as we heard the sound of clapping coming from the darkness of the warehouse.

"Bravo! Very nicely done indeed" came a voice from the darkness. "I really don't know why I bother with those guys, they're a complete waste of space!" A figure emerged from the darkness and I heard Jodie give a little whimper.

"Clovis?" I whispered to her.

"Quite right my dear" he said "well done!"

He was standing in the shadows leaning casually on a stack of crates seeming completely unconcerned and confident in his superior strength.

You're working with The Warriors of Ra?" asked Bill incredulously. "Why would you do that? They hate vampires, you're just playing into their hands."

Clovis stood up and walked forward into the faint moonlight. He had long black hair tied back loosely at the back of his neck and sharp black eyes. "That's what they think" he said. "But they suit my purpose. In this instance our goal is the same." He stared at Bill disdainfully. "You're one of them aren't you? Those fools in The Authority, the mainstreaming movement. You want to live alongside humans, as though they were our equals!" he laughed, a harsh cold sound. "They will never be our equals, they are nothing but prey, to be hunted and fed upon."

"You think you can turn back the clock?" asked Bill, "That if you succeed in making humans hate and fear us, if you drive us back into the shadows, that they will somehow forget? You're the fool Clovis. They know about us now. It's too late!"

"They should fear us!" snarled Clovis. "They should worship us! We should be as Gods to them!"

"You really are crazy aren't you!" said Bill. "They don't worship you, they hate you! Can't you see that?"

"They bring me food and dispose of the remains, what is that if not worship?" He laughed again. "I'm not a fool, I know they hate me but I don't care so long as they fear me, as they should!"

Bill had gone completely still. "They bring you food?" he asked quietly. "You mean they, the Warriors, kidnapped these girls and brought them here to you, you fed on them and killed them and they left the bodies where they would be found?"

"Yes" he said "and now I see I have another." He looked over at me appreciatively. "I understand that she is yours? Then she will serve our purpose well, when they find her body everyone will know that you are unable to protect even your own pet." He took a couple of steps forward to stand before Bill. "Stand aside" he said "you cannot hope to challenge me and survive, I am many times your age."

"If you think that's going to stop me then you really know very little about me" said Bill with a smile.

Suddenly, with no warning, Clovis had leapt forward and flung himself on Bill. There was a brief struggle during which Bill got in a good punch to Clovis's jaw. He staggered back looking surprised. I glanced around at the three girls, wondering what. If anything I could do to help. All three were pressed back against the wall, eyes wide with fright. Clearly Clovis terrified them and it was obvious that they weren't going to be any help to me. Azaria was still holding down the first Warrior. The other one was sitting by the door holding his broken nose, obviously not up to taking any further part in the proceedings.

I turned back to see Bill and Clovis struggling and I was just in time to see Bill take hold of Clovis by the upper arm and kick his feet out from under him. Clovis, clearly unused to this treatment, fell back and Bill bent down, caught hold of the cloth of his trousers and lifted him up horizontally. He gasped as Bill stuck out his leg and slammed him down across his outstretched knee. There was a sickening crack and Clovis let out an agonised scream as Bill threw him to the floor where he lay stunned. Bill backed off and watched him for a moment as he began struggling on the concrete floor and it soon became obvious that his back was broken. Bill smiled and squatted down beside him. Clovis stared at him in horror "How could you do that?" he gasped.

Bill gave an evil little chuckle. "You made the same mistake that all your kind do" he said. "You assumed that you were stronger and more powerful than your opponent, simply because that has always been true in the past. Well things have changed Clovis, things are never going to be the same for you again."

"You think I fear the true death!" sneered Clovis. "I have faced death many times, hundreds of years before you were born."

Bill smiled again. "Oh I'm not going to kill you Clovis!" he said, standing up and reaching into his pocket for his phone. "I need you and your associates here as an example, to hand over to the authorities." He tossed me the phone and crouched down again beside the crippled vampire. "I'm going to see that you pay for what you've done!" he hissed angrily. "Those girls were innocents and they were murdered simply to further your political agenda! I intend to make sure you pay for that." He got up, turned his back on Clovis in disgust and walked out.

I had called the police by this time and they were on their way. I walked outside to find Bill leaning on the wall and staring into space.

"Police are on their way" I said.

Bill turned to me and took my hand. "Those poor girls!" said bleakly. "They were murdered just to make some political point. It's no wonder people hate and fear us."

"Not all vampires are like Clovis" I said "and besides he wasn't acting alone remember. The Warriors of Ra are humans, and they were helping him! They may not have actually done the killing, but they were just as responsible!" I glanced back towards the door. "Shouldn't someone be keeping an eye on him by the way?"

Bill heaved a sigh. "Yes, you're right. I'll go."

As he turned to go back inside I said "He looked surprised that you beat him."

Bill turned back to me with a weak smile "believe me" he said "he wasn't half as surprised as I was!"

A few minutes later the first Police car arrived, sirens blaring. It was followed by half a dozen more, a large Police van and several ambulances.

Inspector Felton jumped out of the first squad car and ran over to the open warehouse door. The van doors opened and two more officers jumped out both of whom I immediately knew were vampires. Within minutes the warehouse and the area outside was swarming with police. I went over and helped the three girls and Azaria out into the open. The three girls were taken over to the ambulances by the paramedics to be checked over.

Bill came back out and pulled Azaria into his arms. "Are you okay?" he asked, "what happened?"

"I'm not sure" she said. "It all happened so fast. "Dan and I were walking to the restaurant and suddenly someone threw something over me, a net. It didn't burn exactly but there must have been silver in it because I was suddenly unable to move. When Dan tried to help me someone hit him over the head. They threw me in the back of a van and brought me here."

"Sounds like the sort of thing Ulrich's security guys used on Lazlo" I said

"Yes" said Bill "It's a standard security measure. A little disturbing to think that the Warriors of Ra have them though."

She looked up at Bill "what happened to Dan?" she asked "Are you sure he's okay?"

"Yes, he'll be fine. He had a knock on the head that's all, he's in the hospital, I've spoken to him" said Bill. "You poor thing, you must have been terrified."

Azaria hugged him "Not really" she said "I knew you'd come for me."

They were standing together, arms around each other when one of the paramedics came over to Bill and said hesitantly "Excuse me Sir. One of the girls would like to speak to you, if that's okay?"

"Yes, of course" said Bill and we walked over to the ambulance. Jodie was sitting on the flat bed with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Some of the Police cars had brought relatives of the missing girls and I assumed that the woman sitting with her arm around her was her mother. An older man standing next to the ambulance door was presumably her father.

As we approached Jodie held out her hand to Bill and he took it gently. "I owe you an apology" she said.

Bill laughed "An apology? Whatever for?"

"When you came into the warehouse, when you first came over to us I was terrified…..I thought…."

Bill gave her hand a little squeeze. "Yes…..I can imagine what you thought!" he said "after what you'd been through I'm not in the least surprised. That's why I asked Alex to come in with me."

"I've always imagined myself to be broad minded, I was never afraid of vampires, I would have been interested to meet one, but…"

Bill reached forward gently and brushed the hair back from her neck revealing a nasty wound. She had obviously been savagely bitten and fed from more than once. "I guess this wasn't what you had in mind?" he asked her with a little smile. "Will you let me help you with this? Trust me?" She nodded and Bill sat back a little and parted his lips slightly. There was a slight click as his fangs ran out and Jodie's mother jerked back a little. I saw her father lean forward slightly, ready to jump on Bill, but Jodie simply sat still watching him. Bill opened his mouth and bit down into his wrist, then rubbed his fingers in the blood. He reached over and gently spread the blood over the wound in Jodie's throat which immediately began to heal.

"Wow!"

The voice came from behind me and I turned to see one of the paramedics.

"I'd heard about that. Never seen it though" he said staring at Bill in astonishment. "Um…there's two other…"

Bill held out his wrist to the paramedic. "Hurry, before the wound closes!" he said.

The paramedic rummaged in a box and pulled out a sterile dressing. Tearing open the packing he carefully wiped up the blood from Bill's wrist and hurried over to the other ambulance. Jodie's mother picked up another dressing and began wiping the blood from Jodie's neck, the skin beneath was unbroken, as though the horrific bite wound had never been there.

"Thank you" said Jodie.

"We're not all like Clovis" said Bill softly. "In fact, thankfully, very few of us are like him!"

Jodie's mother put her hand on Bill's arm. "I'd like to thank you too" she said. "I was afraid she'd be scarred for life...marked, as..." she paused "oh, I didn't mean it like that!"

Bill smiled. "It's okay, I understand. It's the least I can do for her."

Bill was just getting up when another car came racing round the corner and pulled up behind the ambulance in a cloud of dust. When the dust had settled Charles and Ulrich got out.

Ulrich went over to Azaria and gave her a hug. "You're all right?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine" she said with a smile.

Charles turned to Bill and said "I see you managed to fix Anastasia's little problem then."

"Well, it appears so" answered Bill. He turned to watch the police bringing the two wounded warriors out in handcuffs and shoving them in the back of a squad car, one complaining vociferously about his broken nose.

Suddenly Bill turned back to Charles, "Wait, I forgot all about the club! Morgan is there, he was involved as well!"

"Don't worry" said Ulrich "we've already sent some of our security to pick him up."

I turned to see Inspector Felton coming towards us holding the chain and the broken handcuffs, the metal twisted and ripped apart. "I must remember not to try and use these on you Sir!" he said with a smile. There's another chain in there too, appears to be shattered. Do you know anything about that?" he asked.

Bill and I looked blank. "Some flaw in the metal perhaps?" asked Bill innocently.

"Hmm…..it's possible I suppose" replied the Inspector. He placed the handcuffs in a large plastic evidence bag and walked over to the Police van with it.

I noticed that Ulrich seemed unable to tear his eyes away from the twisted handcuffs, he waited until the Inspector was out of earshot and then asked "So how exactly did you manage to beat Clovis? He must be nearly ten times your age isn't he?"

"I just got lucky I guess" answered Bill. "He was overconfident."

"You seem to get lucky a lot" said Charles. First Lazlo…..now Clovis."

Fortunately just at that moment the two vampire officers appeared through the door at the rear of the warehouse carrying one of the strange, silvery nets. The crippled body of Clovis was tightly wrapped inside it, but he was still fighting. He saw Bill standing with Ulrich and glared out at them, his vicious black eyes alight with malice. "You'll pay for this Compton!" he spat.

Bill ignored him and turned back to Ulrich. "What will happen to him?" he asked. "Will The Authority want to take him for trial?"

Ulrich shook his head. "After what happened with Lazlo I think we'll leave him to the human authorities. We probably shouldn't try to interfere anyway, there's been so much publicity in this case the human public would be rightly suspicious if we tried to spirit him away somewhere. No, better to let him stand trial with his "associates". It will do no harm to let people know that we are not all alike, that we are prepared to hand over our own kind for punishment by humans if they merit it. We'll put our knowledge at their disposal if they need it, but we'll leave Clovis to them."

At this point Inspector Felton came back over to us. "Well, it's been a pleasure working with you Sir" he said to Bill. "You'll need to come into the station later to make a statement, well all of you in fact, but it looks as if you've solved my case for me!" He held out his hand and Bill shook hands with him.

"Oh by the way" said Bill "there is one other thing." He turned to Ulrich and said "Inspector Felton, this is Ulrich, he's a member of The Vampire Authority. Ulrich, what's happening about Morgan?"

"Ah, yes!" said Ulrich. "There was another vampire involved, possibly more than one Inspector. My security detail have picked him up. We'll be happy to hand him over to you at your convenience. Any assistance we can provide, we'll be most happy to give you."

"That's very helpful of you Sir, we're very grateful for your assistance."

He smiled at us and walked away.

"Right then. I think we should get over to the hospital and see how Dan is" I said, putting my arm around Azaria. "He must be worried about you."

When we arrived the first person we saw, sitting in the reception area reading a magazine, was Claudia.

She looked up as we came in. "Azaria!" she cried. "You're okay! Oh thank goodness! Dan will be so relieved, he's been worrying himself sick over you!" She swept Azaria up into her arms and kissed her. She turned to Bill.

"What on earth happened? Dan said someone hit him over the head and snatched her!"

"It's a long story" said Bill. "I'll explain later. Come on, let's go and see Dan."

Dan was in a room off the side corridor and when we walked in Chris was sitting beside the bed. Dan lay on the pillows, one side of his head swathed in bandages, but he looked otherwise okay. His one good eye lit up when he saw Azaria.

"Oh thank heavens, you're all right!" he cried.

Chris got up so that Azaria could have his seat and Dan took her hand and kissed it gently. He looked up at Bill.

"I'm so sorry Mr Compton" he said guiltily. "I tried to stop them but there were too many of them."

Bill smiled down at him "It's okay, I'm sure you did your best. They knew what they were doing, you were lucky not to have been hurt worse. You did the right thing in giving my name to the Police so that I got the message as soon as possible."

Dan looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know I'm sure I recognised one of them. I think he works in a student bar, next to one of the colleges. I've been in there a few times with some mates and we used to kid him about how friendly he was with all the girls. But I can't remember which college it was."

"Magdalen!" said Bill and I at the same time.

"Yes! That was it! How did you know that?" asked Dan looking totally confused.

"Long story" said Bill again.

"Oh Bill, that must be it!" I said. "I'll bet he knew all of them, that's how they were chosen. He picked them up and delivered them to Clovis!"

"You need to tell this to the Police, Dan" said Bill very seriously. "They'll want you to identify this man if you can. Ask to speak to Inspector Felton, tell him I told you to call."

"Come on everyone, let's give Dan and Azaria some privacy shall we?" said Chris.

"Alex? How about a coffee and a cream cake?"

"Great idea!" I said let's go, we can tell you and Claudia the full story." I put my hand on Azaria's shoulder, we'll be back later okay?"

"Right" she said "I'll be fine."

We all headed out towards the hospital café. Bill looked back through the window to see Dan holding Azaria's hand and gazing up at her adoringly. I tapped him on the arm.

"What have I said about letting her live her own life?" I asked.

Bill laughed "Yes I know! It's just….." he looked down at me, suddenly horrified. "Oh my God! I'm jealous of a teenager!"

I leaned on him laughing. "Don't be so silly. She loves you Bill, she loves you very much….as a father. She'll always love you, whatever else happens in her life she knows you'll always be there for her."

He put his arm around me and gave me a hug. "Come on, before Chris eats all the cream cakes!"


End file.
